Artist: Ádám Horváth
Exhibition title: Fingerprints are blown by the wind towards a sacred land
Curated by: Kristóf Kovács (Gergely Sajnos)
Venue: Horizont Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Date: September 16 – October 21, 2020
Photography: Dávid Biró, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Horizont Gallery, Budapest
Nature on its own is capable of deception and illusion. Many insects can assimilate so perfectly that even an experienced entomologist, even by taking a closer look, can hardly recognize them. Sometimes, for an outside observer a hundred-year-old tree, which is clinging to the qround with all of its roots and is about to fall, might only seem like a rotting log, even though it is steadier than any building. In some situations, the eye and the brain are deceived, confused, and an illusion occurs. There are illusions which are mere deceptions, while others lure our imagination into breaking away from reality. Science fights against deception, while art flirts with illusion. The illusion of perception is more than mere mistake. In many cases, it is this kind of phenomenon, phantasmagoria that is able to shed light on reality. Paintings and sculptures featured in the exhibition titled ’Fingerprints are blown by the wind towards a sacred land are’ mostly characterized by the manner of speaking and atmosphere of bioromanticism, which defines itself in contrast to technoromanticism, that largely determines our present. A significant part of this point of view is that the artworks are pervaded by a kind of a creating force, which also leaves a mark on each layer of the works. Moreover, at the same time, it legitimates even those abstract elements that are seemingly not portraying anything. What is more, they are intensively pervaded by the ideas and philosophical premises of transhumanism. Above all, isolation and mysticism are decisively present in the artworks, which basically set their atmospheres. On the other hand, searching for home and the feeling of rootlessness can dominantly be found in them, that, either consciously or unconsciously, but fundamentally preoccupy the present generation. This kind of dark, magical context, supplemented by organic structures is pointing out an unusual utopia or dystopia-based private mythology, which is a kind of an ode about disillusionment, healing and compulsory solutions. On the other hand, it is a love confession to nature’s wonderful illusions. The preromanticism that pervades the images of Ádám Horváth is not present as a theme or a style, but rather as the essence of the works. He uses nature and its various elements as a metaphor and the artworks as a magical shrine. The ongoing exhibition is a sequel of an actual one, namely the rebirth of the relationship between contemporary art and magic featured in the exhibition titled ’I found a shelter at the river shore’.
