Landscape
Erik Mátrai’s installation entitled
Landscape was
designed specifically for M0, the new project
space of Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle Budapest. Over
almost the entire area of the former assembly
hall – with its historicist character and stuccoed,
vaulted ceiling – a golden liquid swirls and flows
down the four-metre high walls. The sounds of
the water and the yellow light fill and dominate
the exhibition space both acoustically and
visually. The work – with its emphatically
symmetric composition inspired by the visual
elements of the baroque altar – is a
locus, which
simultaneously bears reference to the golden age
and an idyllic world (landscape), mimics nature’s
cyclical character and creates the notion of mythic
time. The whirling, flowing phenomenon, with its
blend of golden tempera and gold dust, retains
the symbolic meaning of both live-giving water
and gold as the source of economy.
The painterly perspective, which is so characteristic
of Mátrai’s works, and his earlier, recurring motifs
(
Mass in Barracas, The Parting of the Red Sea), are
equally present in
Landscape. This time, however,
rather than using a projector and creating a videobased
piece, the artist works with water, paint,
wood and foil.
Landscape is not about producing an
illusion, but about vision presented as reality, about
rendering an apparition real, about representing
a picture of the imagination. It is mostly in this
that Mátrai’s installation differs from the works
of other contemporary artists engaging a similar
thematic, such as the well-known – mostly urban
– installations of Olafur Eliasson, Julius Popp’s
high-tech word-waterfalls, and Fabrizio Plessi’s
works reflecting on the boundaries between
reality and illusion. The aurulent
Landscape, which
draws both on the traditions of contemporary art
and art history, can also be interpreted here and
now, within the context of the changes that affect
Műcsarnok, as an institution.
Erik Mátrai graduated from the Painting Program
of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts Budapest
in 2004 and currently lives and works in Budapest.
He generally uses a wide range of mediums; in his
panel paintings and videos, inspired by the themes
of religion and art history, he utilizes the latest
technology and the tools of classic iconography.
Mátrai is continuously experimenting with new
materials and techniques. His work engages basic
natural elements and phenomena, such as reflection,
water, fog, with the intention of creating simple,
clean pieces. His sight-specific installations –
which explore the connection between the artwork
and the space itself – are often situated in sacral
spaces or lend the space trascendental meaning.
www.erikmatrai.com
Supported by: EMMI, Naplopó Kft.
Interviews: