05 Aug Zsófia Keresztes
It was late afternoon in the Giardini and we had just grabbed a quick and absolutely bland lunch at the Venice Biennale. For some reason, I wanted the first thing we visit after our break to be the Hungarian Pavilion. Perhaps I felt all along that Zsófia Keresztes ’s After Dreams: I Dare to Defy the Damage would unveil to me new dimensions about my own identity.
At first, I was completely entranced with the vast number of large-scale sculptures. It’s not the first time I’m writing of how I am completely and unequivocally in love with mosaic, but I couldn’t quite believe that in such a vast space I kept following the chains on the floor and new artworks would reveal themselves everywhere. It was as if I was Alice and I had just stepped into my own Wonderland. I would describe my visceral reaction as the closest thing to the excitement levels I’d trace back to my childhood when I would discover something new and it took a couple of long breaths to regroup and start viewing the exhibition again from scratch so I could appreciate all the details.
I should start by saying I was familiar with Zsófia Keresztes ’s sculptures thanks to the Internet, but it was the first time I got the opportunity to be near them. If I could go back to the Biennale and spend a little extra time with some of the artworks, the Hungarian Pavilion would be on the top of the list, although I spent my fair share of time there during the Giardini day. I remembered that some of her works feature saturated reds and yellows, but for this exhibition the artist chose only pastel shades, which I perceived as a delve into vulnerability, and only brought me closer to the sculptures.
Perhaps the most powerful feeling I can recall of the whole experience was the instant longing to hug the ethereal sculptures. Still, every time I was in close proximity of one, I would have the same revelation that the small mosaic tiles, although absolutely exquisite, looked like they would harm the human flesh. Soon after, I learned upon reading the curatorial text that the concept of the exhibition references Schopenhauer’s porcupine dilemma. Arthur Schopenhauer described the situation where in the face of extreme cold, a group of hedgehogs would want to gather together to keep warm, but their spines makes it impossible for them to not get hurt in the process. Just like that, we crave human intimacy, but in the philosopher’s eye this cannot be achieved without mutual harm, which will further damage the nature of our relationships to others. I don’t know which part of this shocked me more: the fact I felt the need to hug the works, as if they were close people from my life, or the fact that Zsófia Keresztes’s ensemble of sculptures flawlessly intertwine and reference one of the most debated metaphors of philosophy.
It’s impossible to overlook the fact that the majority of works are constructed in perfect symmetry, which the artist links to the duality of our natural self and our digital avatars. There is no escaping the fact that our existence is linked to the internet in the time frame we live in, but how does that shape our identity? On one hand, the materiality of the sculptures the artist envisions teases your senses, but the glossy mosaic tiles are at the same linked to the virtual pixels on our screens. The symmetry of the sculptures manages to create a tension which comes from the opposition between our real and digital version, as they struggle to coexist together and merge at some point.
All the sculptures exhibited have been created by the artist for the Venice Biennale and the element of novelty was the fact she didn’t require just a few months to prepare prior, like she did for other solo shows: this project was one year and a half in the making. Also a different direction, quoted as the most challenging one, is the fact that in order to finish so many artworks of this magnitude, she chose to collaborate with assistants. Using mosaic tiles is an incredibly meticulous process and she confessed that before this project she couldn’t envision getting help from other people.
Another impactful element was the artist’s choice to include metal structures in some of the sculptures- it looked as if the shelves not only supported the glossy parts of the installation, but they fused with the shapes altogether. The chains can be observed in different settings: at first, I saw them as a binder between the sculptures, guiding my path to discover new layers of my journey into self-reflection but I also felt how they were also emphasizing how the artworks are constantly interacting with each other. Then there are the chains the artist employs in connecting the giant eye- a recurring motif in her work- to teardrops. The eye is an essential symbol of the cognitive experience, only in the artist’s representation it is kept open by the weight of the chains and the giant teardrops. I also found the same tension and duality represented in the very shape of the teardrops: on one end they resemble a soft sphere, while the other is sharp, like a dagger.
Originally, Zsófia Keresztes started experimenting with glass mosaic in 2017, as she was looking for a shiny material that would resemble the glossy membrane of the human inner organs to complete her surreal compositions. Along the way, the artist also discovered the intricacy of working with such small and different pieces into fitting them together resembles with the way our personalities and human relationships are constituted. Further more, covering the abstract shapes with this material resulted in creating a geometrical armor for her styrofoam and fiberglass forms. I also love how thanks to this fabric new versions of the sculptures are generated with every angle and shades of light coming through the room at any given time- life is a curious sum of variables.
In the eyes of Mónika Zsikla, the curator of the exhibition, after visiting the Hungarian Pavilion this year, one should be able to ponder whether people are irrevocably changed by the virtual version of our times and if there is such thing as finding your identity without recalling fragments of our individual and collective past. I believe finding one’s own identity is a life-long search, but I felt a couple of steps closer in the right direction thanks to this incredible exhibition.
References:
- https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/429696/zsfia-keresztesafter-dreams-i-dare-to-defy-the-damage/
- https://www.pw-magazine.com/2021/zsofia-keresztes-sculpting-duality/
- https://www.contemporaryartsociety.org/news/artist-to-watch/zsofia-keresztes/
- https://news.artnet.com/art-world/zsofia-keresztes-2081959
- https://hypeandhyper.com/en/bordering-on-the-edge-of-virtuality-and-reality-interview-with-monika-zsikla-and-zsofia-keresztes/
- https://secondaryarchive.org/artists/zsofia-keresztes/
All photos taken by © Adrian Cojocaru
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