Galerija Balen
Slavonski Brod
16 April - 3 May 2002

In the present era of consumerist hegemony the need 'to be superficial' has become a necessity for survival. People are surrounded by processed information and are losing their ability to interpret.

János Sugár believes that art can provide the opportunity to go beyond the triviality of everyday living by raising problems and making solutions less transparent.

The artist obsessionally recycles several elements and arranges them into new constellations. The fragile construction of the house of cards, the tensed coil of masonite and the loop of infinity are frequently used in his installations. So is the blue curtain, which is made from the blue box material used in the production of TV programmes. For the artist it represents 'the colour of nothing', and at the same time opens new visions. The provocative slogan 'EAT YOUR BEING' is one of the recurring philosophical quotations in his work.

Sugár has found an analogy for the creative process in the research into telepathy of the early twentieth-century Russian scientist Assistant Professor Zshuk. The results of his experiments into the power of mental suggestion show that 'even with the best intentions, the difference between aim and realisation is so great that if we couldn't see the two side by side, we wouldn't be able to find the connection between them.' The realization should be interpreted together with the concept. This example in the context of art also implies a role for the artist as an unconscious messenger for 'basic, ancient, instinctive knowledge.'

The exhibition in Slavonski Brod was also an interesting setting for an early showing of 'Typewriter of the Illiterate', the artist's now well-known video work in which numerous images from newspapers and magazines of people bearing Kalashnikov AK 47 machine guns morph into each other. János Sugár has since stated that the showing of the work in a border city in Croatia had a special poignancy, as some of the images showed fighters from the war in former Yugoslavia.

Curated by Maja and Reuben Fowkes