András Ravasz’s current exhibition in the Project Room at The Ludwig Museum Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art is entitled Transylvanian Transfer. It comprises of five light box-photographs and a video work called 200% dB (2001). This will be the first opportunity for a Hungarian audience to view these works, which were previously shown at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Lille Métropole in the exhibition "Histoires Hongroises” (2001).
In Transylvanian Transfer, Ravasz proposes the problems of personal space and time. The unusual aura of these images bespeak of timeless states, meditative situations and ”other-worldliness”, as still-images begin to emerge as reflections of a world where the notion of time is coordinated according to different laws that we (the viewers) are accustomed to. The images are constructed from found photographs, into which the artist inserts his head or his body to fuse the history of an eastern or nomadic time and space, with his own. The notion of transfer, as suggested by the title, is therefore personified by the images themselves; transfers from one history, culture, and personal role, to that of another. Although the artist is the main protagonist in these works, it requires some time for the viewer to make this connection.
The video piece, 200% dB, shows an elderly lady sitting in the middle of a forest, listening to the radio. The music is a looped montage compilation by Dj Palotai, and appears in sync with the movements of the lady, who seems captivated by the music as she swings side-to-side. This however, sets up a paradigm: it is not the music that accompanies the image, but the other way round. The visuals therefore become prime constituents of the music itslef.
Since Andras Ravasz also mixes his own electronic music, he will perform at the museum’s cafe later this September. For more specific information, please refer to the museum’s website.
