Art exhibition "Remix" by Zsolt Gyenes at "Pécsi Kisgaléria", Pécs

Report of Attila Koszits, "Magyar Rádió 6" (Hungarian Radio 6), 20. 04. 2008.
 
A. K.
The newest media has totally effected the way of thinking about, and how to express, a work of art – admits Zsolt Gyenes artist, who becomes envious of DJs and VJs, who use the new media. Now, his exhibition, titled "Remix," uses the new media of electrographies, light-calligraphies, light-box and video. His new exhibition is at "Pécsi Kisgaléria". He has been engaged with the organization of light, to extend its possibilities to photography and visual art, for more than 20 years. This time his theme uses an analogy from the life of DJs and VJs.
We exist in a postmedial age, where the remix-technique is fundamental. In this way all pictures can remix, too. First I inquire about how you adopt to the new settlings, solutions?

Zs. Gy.
Recently I listened to lots of remix music. One of my favourites is the Thievery Corporation. Really, every album of theirs is excellent, and have high standards. With the digital environment, digital technology it's became possible that might be substituted with e. g. complete (former, analogous) studios. The digital expression has characteristics. It allows the possibility to a kind of free experiment, that the former media could not. Remix is the metaphor of our day. It rises the question of originality too. Can we, only with the newest media, create original works? What is the relation between the old and new media technique? In connection with these exhibited works, I especially wanted to use the computer, scanner and digital camera. I remixed my former works or commercial materials, such as illustrated and packing papers, picture postcards and (visiting) cards. These new works were made in the last half year.

A. K.
Let's go to the bigger hall of the art gallery! We can see here color pictures. At once appear two pictures with fantastic colors. Were these made on rusty objects, or were they just given these titles?

Zs. Gy.
It has nothing to do with any rusty object. I am interested in how a ray of light behaves facing another beam of light. The essences of the scanner and the materials used by me is the light. My applied materials are holographic, reflecting surfaces. Naturally I am interested in how to create new qualities with the help of these new media, and equipment. The facing lights mostly produce deep black; – this is the shadow. Making pictures I use Photoshop too. The things are transformed, modified step by step. Motion also plays an important part in this process. Every picture has to do with photography too; they are technical pictures. All of them were taken with long exposures. The special exposure is done with the digital scanner. I prefer the copy motion technique. A common characteristic of all works is the expansion of space-time, particularly dynamism and motion.

A. K.
I see facing two pictures with brownish shades of color. These date back to the antique world (for me); and the text makes that idea stronger; – as it would be carved in stone. The text is very interesting: "Can Man Save This Fragile Earth?". It looks like you would take a photograp of an ancient monument.

Zs. Gy.
The base of this work is a picture from the National Geographic. I remixed, revised totally this picture. The original picture comes from an about twenty year old cover. We could recognize e. g. North-America; but it is deformed and "fragile" a little. However the cover picture itself has became fragile during the 20 years. After all the title of the picture is a quote from the National Geographic. We could say this is a stereotype, (but actual).

A. K.
Surely this deconstruction means the preserving of the ancient worth.

Zs. Gy.
Yes, considering from one side this is a deconstruction. On the other hand the artist always constructs, creates. These two things are inseparables. There is a point, after which I would not like to explain what the work of art is. I believe, that all work is open to interpretation in its own way. Naturally the title of the work is of importance. The pair of the above-mentioned work is remixed with another picture of National Geographic. We could not really recognize the original (McDonald's). The special appearance of the picture was formed by the effects of motion and other modifications. It has melted down the trace of time.

A. K.
It is very interesting your "fishy" work too. It is a montage, where parts of fish depict the "feeling of fish". The small pictures create an united work.

Zs. Gy.
I remixed it from my former pictures. I cut out from one of my own catalogues the pictures and I made variations. We can see two of them. When I made these works I applied "scratch-technique", like the DJs, but "scratching over the scanner".

A. K.
It is an interesting genre: electrography. Obviously it contains – as I saw in your works of art in the other hall – the graphic art, rather electrographic art.

Zs. Gy.
In the next few years we could frequently see this genre. It starts to find its place in art galleries in Hungary too. Electrography is a wider sphere than electrographic art (e. g. electrography could be picturesque spectacle). This medium/media includes different techniques and equipments, e. g. fax, xerox, the whole digital environment. The roots of this medium date back to the 1960 to 1970's, when concept art was one of the prefered movements. Now electrography has gained enough appreciation to enter into the "hall of visual arts". This new medium still has possibilities. The new-born media is in close connection with the present; it is an integral part of the postmedial age. On the other hand not only does the new media express our age, but in also has an effect on old media, such as on painting.

A. K.
One can also see a light-box in your exhibition. This medium connects with neon lighting ads; it also leads back to former ages. This lighting (up) work depicts a multiplied nude.

Zs. Gy.
I made a nude photo-series. This piece originates from that. The light joins the light-box to my other works of art. The light-box operates like a monitor; the light illuminates the forms and colors from behind. It reminds me of the glass windows of Gothic cathedrals. In this way the light-box is a mixture of the oldest and newest media. We seldom see this in art galleries of Hungary.

A. K.
One can see a video on DVD. It is such a work, where the picture is splitted to two parts.

Zs. Gy.
I exhibit in the smaller hall of this art gallery a series titled "Light-calligraphies". This video is a documentation, but at the same time it is an independent work of art too. We could see how I made those pictures. It was a slightly magical, ritual action, which happened with listening and "dancing" to music. On the left side of the screen occurs the "action", but on the right side parallel with it is what the "camera could see" in connection with the "event". The latter was made by animation technique. And the visitors to the exhibition can see the "results" of the actions hanging up on the walls. This is a coherent conception.