EDITION 7
TAMÁS KOMORÓCZKY - ABSOLUTE ABSURD
nationality: HUNGARY
duration: 5'58"
made in: 2012
previous screenings: Trafo Gallery 2012, Gallery Pécs 2013
biography:
synopsis:
Beelzebub explains the reciprocal feeding to the Replicator
("Everything eats, everything is eaten" exhibition)
„Memetics is a proto-science based upon the theory of Richard Dawkins from 1976. Memetics is a combination of the Greek notion of the mimesis and genetics. According to Dawkins’ theory every person and being contains more ten-thousands of small information containers (memes), which try to replicate and to reproduce themselves (…) Human conscience for meme-tics is a constellation of constantly changing memes which inhabit the brain. (…) The base of the universe according to memetics is copying, relatively loose copying which interprets also evolution.” (source: wikipedia)
Although memetics is really interesting from a cultural point of view, as religion, fashion, trends and art can be also interpreted on this theoretical base with the tough and stubborn memes which try to replicate themselves through many generations.
Komoróczky in his exhibition mixes memetics with the thesis „everything eats, everything is eaten” which occurred to the influential Greek-Armenian mystic thinker G.I. Gurdjieff in the early years of the 20th century. According to Gurdjieff – who influenced such artists as Frank Lloayd Wright and Peter Brook - every being in the universe reciprocally sustains another, and this isn’t merely a biological or bodily, but also a psychological metaphor. Thus the exhibition’s central issue is what are we feeding with our behavior, thoughts and emotions? What is feeding upon us?
Komoróczky who is active in the field of absolute-absurdity built an ethereal environment in the gallery space with his works. His pieces include the neon-lightning of the space, the many post-minimal objects, and the Latin translation of „everything eats, everything is eaten” neon-sign. Although every item and object is equal in relevance in the gallery space, the works create special rhythms as the video, where Beelzebub teaches the replicator, or the two-dimensional panels which are sometimes pageants, sometimes bad-drawings, sometimes network constructivist paintings, or the bone sculpture which is special because the artist ate it all.
Komoróczky’s art which contains an incredible amount of humour also researches the sculptural aspects of pasta, and creates a confession-conference for the dead parrot and the replicator.
Tamás Komoróczky is one of the founding members of the Újlak Group, which prooved to be one of the most influental formations in Hungary in the early ’90s. Komoróczky exhibited at the Hungarian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2001, previously in 1993 in Art in General, New York, and in 2005 in the Ludwig Museum, Köln. His latest circle of exhibitions after years spent with work in Berlin contains a large scale solo show at Kiscelli Múzeum: Escape Attempt, and other exhibitions in Liget Gallery, Videospace Gallery and Neon Gallery in Budapest.