Gaál József: Brighella

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An exhibition resurrected from the original WordPress archive of the Godot Gallery.

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The Godot Gallery cordially invites you.

Gaál József

Brighella

for the exhibition titled.

Opening: 2009. February 4 at 20 o'clock.

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We present a selection of the artist’s works produced between 2000 and 2008, whose common subject is Brighella. In visual and literary works they portray the pair more frequently, the shy and inquisitive Arlecchino, who himself, and by far through Brighella, ends up in trouble. Gaál believes that the sly, malevolent yet clever and event‑driven Brighella has so far been unfairly relegated to the background, even though they too reveal much about human nature.

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Little Brigant! – how many times I heard it as a child, my grandmother, embarrassed, but kindly shouted. The little devil, the little scamp, we understood what it meant, but we did not recognise Brighella — the stage troublemaker, the great schemer, the wily and bluff servant. Who would have thought that Brighella represents survival, that he carefully considers every act and even in confusion sees reality? We forgot what we had not yet experienced, because the idealist always walks in the heavens, the weary Moon‑Fool, Arlecchino the naïve. The urchin whom Nietzsche modelled the dreamy cross on, who, fleeing reality, prefers to loaf. If you knew, Hellequin in medieval mimus plays was a demonic figure, the tormenting demon of mystery plays. I also reveal that the two jests stem from a single dagger, the angelic and demonic duality. We need not deny ourselves; the two sides of the Janus stool always slip together, especially in such moments, during carnival. So know that the inner duel is also a great stage play, when your first self battles the second, in reality He was the first. The loafers always watch Arlecchino's melancholy exhale, wondering how to chase artistic false fantasies. The Clown, the self‑medicated artist's mask, but the doer, Brighella – see: briga –, who performs and completes the burdensome work, takes on the discomfort, the troubles, bargains, arranges, sabotages, bores. He brings the fantasies to life. As if every innocence had a wild and unrecognisable mother‑tending, how Brighella turns from a hill‑dwelling bandit into an ingenious servant? All this is stylisation, or increasingly nuanced expression of reality. Only Brighella is the one who contains himself, steps off the stage, assimilates into the crowd, and continues his role…

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The exhibition can be viewed until february 28 , from Tuesday to Friday 10 and 18, Saturday between 10 and 18.

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