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