Société Réaliste: Windroad (2011)

The name of the French-Hungarian artist duo – founded in 2004 – plays with the notion of socialist realism, but its meaning is closer to the idea of “being a realist”, i.e. a group or society conforming to the given state of things and based on reality. “Our work is created from the connection of art and ideology, it is born from the fertile encounter of soviet and EU ideology, our topics comprise a mix of French colonial past and soviet heritage, and – of course – are intermixed also with the contemporary hegemony of American influence” – explain the artists in a 2011 interview.

The duo raises questions connected to 21st century society, more specifically, the artists investigate issues directly affecting Europe by way of presenting questions connected to typography, audiovisual tools, national and supranational emblems, maps, colour codes, borders and language. Their query focuses on ethnicity, identity, language, history, migration, borders, the economy and politics. “Windroad” is a work of art in the form of a street sign giving directions to more or less short-lived states that existed sometime during the course of the 20th century, but have since disappeared: the directional boards read the names of long forgotten republics. Whoever heard of the Mura Republic? Is there anyone who knows where Gagauzia is? What two states’ names are combined to produce the term Litbel? These states were born out of ethnic, national, or geopolitical interests, however, these interests did not prove strong enough to withstand the tide of history. The revision of state borders and the creation of a new status quo produce a lot of pain and bloodshed, as is well demonstrated by the course of 20th century history. K.Sz.