Written by Kovács Ágnes
Translated by Zoltán Bartko
Limes Gallery, Komárno, Slovakia
20 April 2018
The eNRA, the International Creative Community of Rovás entered its fifth year. This international group of artists, was founded by the 24-year-old Rovás in 2012; however, there were attempts to exhibit the works produced at the establishing organisation′s creative camps even earlier. The last summer camp was the eighth in a row; similarly to the previous years, it was held at three venues, for a total of three weeks, with one or two weeks of gaps in between.
These camps are the fundamental pillars of the organisation, which does its best to organise the camp at all costs, at three venues – in Transylvania, in Hungary and in Slovakia. Even if times are hard.
The idea behind the establishment of the eNRA was the team gathering every year at summer camps – last year, it was their 8th annual meeting – which comes together to create art, talk, exchange views and ideas and form a community. As of last summer, the eNRA had 40 members, while the number of members has been constantly growing. The various venues are opportunities to join this artistic community – in Transylvania, in Hungary and here, in Slovakia. We invite ever more new artists to join us, so this international, though mostly Hungarian group of artists, the eNRA came to life. Every year, the members of eNRA create an abundance of works, different in style, technique and theme; however, their exhibitions are harmonious, because their leitmotif is the common way of thinking and unity.
We even have a characteristic of eNRA – almost a definition – we pronounce every year. It is as follows: the eNRA prefers free arts and free creativity, uninfluenced by the fashionable trends or the lack of expertise. Free arts means unlimited, independent creativity, which doesn′t hide behind the label of "contemporary art" and doesn′t try to find an alibi in subjectivism.
This exhibition is unconventional. The viewers may see the works of 10 artists, among them four recipients of the Munkácsy Prize and one recipient of the Kossuth Prize, exhibiting together, to show their support to Rovás. Please, let me introduce the artists present here tonight:
Painter Márton Barabás, recipient of the Munkácsy Prize from Budapest, Hungary – his presented works could be best described as three-dimensional image statues. These are made mostly of objects lost and found, primarily parts of musical instruments – prevailingly pianos.
The paintings of József Borsó Borisza from Košice, Slovakia contain a multitude of graphical elements – he often tends to compress multiple ideas into a single painting, so certain parts of a few of his paintings could be even presented on their own.
Attila Dienes, sculptor, recipient of the Munkácsy Prize from Magyarpolány, Hungary, brought some strongly stylized sculptures, often starting erotic fantasies, with perfect surface treatment.
The works of sculptor Tamás Gaál, recipient of the Munkácsy Prize from Budapest, Hungary are geometric and abstract compositions made of metal, wood and stone. He managed to connect the parts of the multi-material statues organically.
Graphic designers Vica Juhász and Zoltán Zeman have to be mentioned together, since they are partners in life and they are both educators at the Károly Eszterházy College in Eger, Hungary. Their typography appears both in functional graphic works and in autonomous artistic experiments. Both of them are constantly researching new techniques. Vica Juhász achieves strong visual effect with her completely simplified vector-Venuses colored with basic colors. The shattered political portraits of Zoltán Zeman are to be primarily understood as messages of our inverted world.
Photographer András Koreň from Košice, Slovakia has an affinity to human figures and faces in black and white or in colour. In his atelier, he produces mostly portraits.
Péter Matl is prevailingly a sculptor, but he is also an avid painter and graphic artist. His favourite theme is the family and the ancient ornaments strongly correlated to Hungarians. He incorporates these ornaments into his art knowingly.
The oil paintings of painter László Nemes from Zalaegerszeg, Hungary are abstract and surreal projections of his literary experiences.
István Orosz, graphic artist, recipient of the Kossuth Prize from Budapest is the present-day representative of anamorphosis, i.e. transformation. His graphic style is known for finely crafted mesh drawings with optical illusions included. He also manages to achieve these effects this with his wooden statue-paintings.
Painter Ottó Szabó from Košice, Slovakia remains to be a graphic artist even if he paints. The main themes of his paintings and graphic works are 20th century man, the relations of society and the individual, the internal battles of the soul.
The paintings of painter József Szurcsik, recipient of the Munkácsy Prize from Budapest, Hungary show monumental and surreal figures with huge, geometrical brains – he dissects the relations of personality, mass society and power.
Our exhibition is entitled “Why. (dot)” This question word is not followed by a question mark, but a dot.
What is the point? Rovás has been questioned many times, in many aspects. Why Rovás?
This exhibition – in addition to the previous ones in Rožňava and Košice, Slovakia – is the answer to the question – to the non-believers.
Ladies and gentlemen! Hereby I declare this exhibition opened. Thank you for your kind attention.
