Beöthy, Balázs: Medium (2000)

Created with the so-called lenticular printing technique, which produces a spatial effect, this image features the portrait of a young man with a gold chain around his neck. The medallion hanging on the chain depicts – depending on the vantage point of the viewer – either the Cross or the Star of David; thus the movement of the viewer produces a slight, yet very important change in the image. The so-called ’winking wallet’ was a typical, hybrid product of the 1970s: enterprising artisans obtained special postcards from the West and welded them to cheap imitation leather wallets, then offered them for sale at fairs and small stores. Balázs Beöthy used this popular technique formerly associated with kitsch for the concise visual expression of a rather timely social issue of the early 2000s: the representation of belonging to one or another religious group, in other words, religious identity. Beöthy goes even further by highlighting the difference, an attribute with immense significance depending on the given historical context. The post-socialist revival of religious conviction, a taboo topic in Hungary during socialist times, has now become an issue of increasing significance: the recent transformation of faith and the Church, with special regard to the expression and experience of Jewish identity – burdened so heavily by historical traumas – as well as the relationship of Christian values and those of other faiths. K.Sz.