- Dates
- 11 February 2021 – 6 March 2021
- Venue
- Godot Galéria · 1114 Budapest, Bartók Béla út 11–13.
- Press contact
- [email protected]
Short listing
Megnyitó: online megnyitó
Full exhibition text
Opening: online opening
We will show the opening performance video on the Godot Gallery Facebook page at 21 o’clock on 11 February 2021.
The exhibition can be viewed until March 6 from Thursday to Saturday between 10 and 14.
Through the work of Réka Barcza, personal memories and dreams are evoked as she examines herself and her surroundings. Beneath the explanatory character of a series produced during the first wave of the pandemic lies a scattering of the romance of the system change and the illusion of westernisation. The source of the monotony of ordinary Hungarian life is found in the unchanging "order" artificially maintained by the state, against which she responds with the only seemingly effective weapon: profound irony.
The recurring figures in the absurd world of the images are the most infamous personalities of the ruling political class, together with comrades-in‑arms who share the same ideological kinship, the most unforgettable public figures of the era, and the one who bears all this – the painter himself. Through settings that at times appear stark, at other times blurred – which are the real rooms of the artist’s life – we witness a bleak, abandoned country and the surreal spectacle of the social‑economic blows dealt to it.
In the double vicious circle of disorientation and ghost‑pressure, Barcza tackles sensitive topics such as the right to the institution of marriage, dilemmas relating to childbearing, the problem of gender roles and stereotypes, the escalating danger of uniformity, forms of populist political action, and the relationship between the state and personal autonomy. His works are a kind of feminist‑tinted folkloric sketch rather than sycophantic contemporary political reflections. They are story‑like, politically inspired tales, and the lessons one draws from them depend entirely on the reader.
Barcza Réka is a laureate of the Godot Art Fair, held in 2020.