Nine Ateliers | Péter Lajtai : There is a Time for Everything

Nine Ate­li­ers – Péter Laj­tai : There is a Time for Everyth­ing

I bor­ro­wed the title for my ex­hi­bit­ion from Ecc­le­si­as­tes, in which King So­lo­mon says, there is a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to keep si­len­ce, and a time to speak; a time for war, and a time for peace. The text lists 14 pairs of cont­rasts in which a de­struc­tive ac­ti­vity, som­eth­ing to be avo­id­ed, is ment­ion­ed first and is fol­lo­wed by a con­struc­tive ac­ti­vity, som­eth­ing to be fol­lo­wed. This order must be im­por­tant: som­eth­ing evil hap­pens but som­eth­ing good comes in its place as cons­o­la­ti­on. There seems to be one ex­cept­ion: in the very first sen­ten­ce since birth stands in the place of evil, and death is cons­o­la­ti­on. This re­ver­sed order can be expla­ined by hope. By being born we must be­co­me wor­thy of life, but So­lo­mon is af­ra­id that man might not be able to live up to this task. After death, howe­ver, we can no lon­ger cause harm, and that is good. The final out­co­me of the game is the­re­fo­re a con­se­qu­en­ce of the de­ci­sions we make in adult­ho­od. My ex­hi­bit­ion exp­lo­res this tenet.

Péter Laj­tai

Péter Laj­tai rend­ers the sta­tions of our sor­rows and self-re­a­li­sa­tions with mo­nu­men­tal pain­terly ges­tu­res. Un­fol­ding from the be­auty of the strong and de­fi­ned pat­ches of co­lo­ur vie­wed from afar, we can see zones com­po­s­ed of nu­me­rous richly laye­red, me­ti­cu­lo­us and never re­pe­ti­tive pic­to­ri­al frag­ments and re­fi­ned vi­su­al mo­ve­ments, car­rying un­sett­ling, blurry, am­bi­va­lent, dang­erous cont­ents that are also full of hope, com­pas­si­on­ate love and ins­p­ira­ti­on. Adam and Eve, Pri­vate Far­mers sug­gests the si­mul­ta­ne­o­us pre­sen­ce of the know­ledge of good and evil, their eter­nal conf­lict. End of an Era add­res­ses the cha­o­tic state of an ir­re­ver­sib­le, ex­pan­sive glo­bal chan­ge, emp­ha­ti­cally war­ning of its th­re­at. A Green Turn No. 1 analy­ses the self-de­cep­tive at­ti­tu­de of dra­ping new co­lo­urs over som­eth­ing de­emed ready to be sur­pas­sed, which is often do­mi­nant in bor­der­line si­tu­a­tions. Ser­mon on the Mount. In­comp­le­te di­rects our at­tent­ion to ethi­cal is­sues we often chose to con­ve­ni­ently evade hi­ding them un­der­neath con­ce­aling layers of com­mon kit­chen foil. West of Zen No. 1 poses un­ner­ving quest­ions lin­ked to glo­bal con­su­mer cul­tu­re that are dif­fi­cult to ans­wer.

Mi­hály Medve, cura­tor of the ex­hi­bit­ion