Várnai, Gyula: Nagymező street (2011)

Gyula Várnai’s installation was made on the occasion of his retrospective exhibition at Ernst Museum in 2010. Originally, it was a site-specific installation reflecting on the venue. The image and sound of the work is provided by the urban environment of the Nagymező Street. The panorama of multiple images projected on the wall in negative display rows of cars and houses, with street noise emanating from the speakers. The artist transposes the urban space into the gallery, even its scale approximately real. Similarly to Várnai’s other installations, however, there is an epistemological, philosophical question underlying the projection: what is reality and what is its image? Does the observer have an effect on reality? Heisenberg’s principles that shook the foundations of physics are not unfamiliar to Várnai, and so he endeavours to manipulate the spectacle in various ways, thus causing the viewer’s perception to falter. The device for this in the present case is the water surface rippled by the spectators’ footsteps, which constantly modifies the projected image. (Krisztina Szipőcs)