Péter Rónai’s enigmatic assembly of objects is composed of a tub filled with hemp-tow and a small working TV-set, which always displays the analogue terrestrial broadcast available for reception on site. (In Hungary, with the digital transition being complete, no such broadcast is available since 2013 and the screen displays white noise.)
Interpretation of the piece is aided by its title that refers to Diogenes, the ancient Greek philosopher known for his unconventional, scandalous behaviour, who lived in a barrel, despised vanity, rejected material possessions and comfort, but valued the human spirit, and, above all, freedom.
The philosopher and orator is replaced by the TV set, the premier mass communication device of the times, a communication channel enjoying a monopoly status from the 1970s onward: the “magic box”, the “electric fence”, the “chewing gum of the eye”, which puts the viewer at ease, weans the viewer off thinking, and commandeers our free time. (Hungarians on average spend four hours watching television each day.) The internet, as an alternative means of gathering on-demand information and entertainment had only become standard by the second decade of the new millennium, yet the power of television still remains overwhelming. TV programming is one of the most effective avenues of manipulation, a mainstay of celebrity, as well as the foundation of political success. Some of the issues brought into the limelight by Rónai’s installation are connected to the ideology and values communicated by televised content, and the piece inquires into what has emerged to replace philosophy, individual thought and opinion in the present day. K.Sz.
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