- Dates
- 22 May 2024 – 15 June 2024
- Venue
- Godot Galéria · 1114 Budapest, Bartók Béla út 11–13.
- Press contact
- [email protected]
Short listing
Megnyitó: 2024. május 22-én 19 óra
Full exhibition text
Opening: 22 May 2024 at 19:00
The exhibition will be opened by Terdik Szilvia, visual artist
Performance: Hermann Zsófia
On view until 15 June, Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 to 14:00, and Saturday from 10:00 to 13:00
hours
Godot Galéria
1114 Budapest, Bartók Béla út 11-13.
"The starting point for my work is to delve into the unconscious through the psychology of schema mapping. This often develops in connection with abuse and disappointments suffered, taking forms such as the critical or punitive parent mode, but also includes learned, instinctive actions developed for survival, such as self-stimulation or manipulation.
To express these, I have evoked and reimagined Symbolist works that inspire me, such as Hodler’s A kiválasztott or de Chavannes’ Remény. Building on the tradition of Symbolist painting, my visual language explores psychological processes through the relationship between humans and nature, drawing on millennia-old metaphors from the plant and animal worlds and combining them with the knowledge of modern psychology.
My relationship with wild animals goes back to my earliest childhood, as my father is a hunter, so it is no surprise that they often feature in my dreams, where I appear as a kind of spiritual guide. Bringing the tradition of Shintoism to life in my paintings, I depict them as a kind of spiritual projection: the lion, for example, embodies feminine energy and strength; the bear is associated with courage and embracing who we are; and the owl appears as the goddess of wisdom. Similarly, flowers are attributes of different qualities and emotions, such as the thistle, which symbolises self-mortification, or the gladiolus, which signifies loyalty and honour. It is no coincidence that, since the beginning of civilisation, humanity has created symbols and used them to interpret itself and its characteristics. My latest exhibition pays tribute to this primordial and pure tradition.
Performance:
It is characteristic of our society today that, although self-knowledge, the search for identity and self-expression are important to us, we overlook the fact that we are all part of nature — or even the universe. In this self-centred society, we often forget our fellow human beings; empathy manifests itself only in clichés, behind which, more often than not, lie gestures that are actually empty and devoid of feeling.
In my performance, the transparency of the glass heart symbolises pure goodwill and the relinquishing of the ego, and I would like to pass it around as a gesture of trust. I have a wish that, despite our differences, we recognise that we are all one, and that together we can do something good for our environment, our society and humanity." - Hermann Zsófia
Opening hours
Godot Galéria
1114 Budapest, Bartók Béla út 11-13.