Letting Go at Trafó Galéria

Artists: Jan Brož, Marek Delong & Anna Slama, Zsófia Keresztes, Pavel Sterec

Exhibition title: Letting Go

Curated by: Jan Zálešák

Venue: Trafó Galéria, Budapest, Hungary

Date: March 30 – April 7, 2017

Photography: Miklós Surányi, images copyright and courtesy the artists and Trafó Galéria, Budapest

Note: Exhibition booklet can be found here

What might the world have been like before Europeans decided it was theirs to be controlled, before they lost their sense of awe and fear and began to devote their energies to the conquest of space and constant change? And what might the world look like after the hurricane of change sweeps all remains of our proud civilisation from the surface of the planet? For most of modernity the speed at which everything changed was the source of an unshakeable faith in the emancipatory potential of progress. These days, faced by global warming, species extinction on a mass scale, and ongoing systemic risk, the speed of change is more likely to engender an overwhelming feeling of despair. The exhibition Letting go explores the possibilities of stepping out of this vicious circle of anxiety and fear. It’s not about utopian visions, but about finding meaning in small things and rediscovering the knowledge that somewhere along the way we lost and that we could so do with right now. And insofar as it offers a glimpse of the future, then this is a future in which mankind will no longer occupy the role of arrogant master of all it surveys.

Anna Slama & Marek Delong, Kiss Me I Am Emo, 2017, installation: digital video, 4 minutes; fabrics, wood, rabbit mesh, hay, earth

Zsófia Keresztes, Be Careful with Your Sharp Parts, 2017, acrylic, pencil, thread, polyurethane foam, reed, polystyrene sheet, variable dimensions

Zsófia Keresztes, The Self-dissection of the Barbarian Colonisers, 2017, acrylic, pencil, plastic foil, faux leather, thread, rope, reed, fleece, polyurethane foam, polystyrene sheet, variable dimensions and (background right) Be Careful with Your Sharp Parts, 2017, acrylic, pencil, thread, polyurethane foam, reed, polystyrene sheet, variable dimensions

Zsófia Keresztes, Weak Password, 2017, thread, faux leather, fleece, variable dimensions

Jan Brož, (from left to right) Light Years Ahead, RateAccele, Spotychart, Too Smart to Publish, 2017, wall paint, UV print on pentaprint, wallpaper, 220 x 480 cm