Curator: Flóra GADÓ
Budapest Gallery
Graphic design: Flóra PÁLHEGYI
In his current exhibition Gideon Horváth, winner of Balkon Contemporary Art Magazine’s fifth Inside Express Award, continues his research on the ecological crisis. The artist’s answer to the various apocalyptic narratives is to focus on the here and the now. He argues, that in order to face the presence of the climate catastrophe, we have to unlearn our previous approach towards our environment. Gideon Horváth’s works address this process of unlearning and rearranging our existing knowledge, in order to find new, emotional standpoints from where we can perceive our surroundings.
The installation created by Gideon Horváth in the Studio Gallery was a unique environment in which through the combination of different materials (sand, aluminum, beeswax) the artist created a hybrid space. The decaying structures here invited us to connect with our environment without the presence of a narrative and to focus, instead, on a sensual, tactile presence guided by playful adventurousness. The installation suggested that instead of apocalyptic visions and ecological grief we should experience a fresh, personal connection in understanding our immediate environment. This way we have the possibility to escape alienation and instead focus on action and on experiencing inevitable change.
The exhibition at Budapest Gallery continues this line of thought: the artist pairs different human and non-human materials and examines the question of how, if we look at them from the new position elicited by climate change, we can rethink everyday objects, forms and materials that surround us. The objects in the exhibition present an intuitive approach, which highlight the importance of our emotional attitude towards our environment. In addition, the medium of video also plays an important part: we see empty cages and paddocks in a zoo, where the emphasis is on man-made environments which we think of as looking “authentic” for animals. The videos draw our attention to the absolutism of the human viewpoint and present the zoo settings as some kind of liminal place where the aesthetization of the environment and the arbitrary selection of species create an unusual atmosphere.
The exhibition was organized in collaboration with Balkon Contemporary Art Magazine. The INSIDER Award, established by Balkon, was given to Gideon Horváth, who were selected from among the artists who appeared in the inside express section of the magazine over the course of 12 months.
