A. BALLA | Ballad | Photographer András Balla’s exhibition

Spend­ing his child­ho­od in the ar­bore­tum of Szar­vas and the inf­lu­en­ce of his bo­ta­n­ist father both pla­yed a role in And­rás Balla’s de­ci­si­on to enrol in the lands­cape de­sign prog­ramme of the Uni­ver­sity of Hor­ti­cul­tu­re. He gra­du­a­ted from there with his first deg­ree in 1970, which was later fol­lo­wed by his ar­chi­tec­tu­ral stu­di­es. Thanks to his pho­tos he has taken since the 1970s, he now has one of the most multi-fa­ce­ted and di­ver­se pho­to­gra­phic oeuvres in Hun­gary. To quote Lász­ló Beke’s apt descript­ion: “And­rás Balla’s pro­fes­sions are hor­ti­cul­tu­re and ar­chi­tec­tu­re, and his cal­ling is pho­to­gra­phy.” The pho­tos and pho­to­g­rams he pro­du­ces using ana­lo­gue pro­ces­ses range from ex­pe­ri­men­tal pi­e­ces and still-lifes to port­ra­its, nudes and lands­ca­pes dist­in­gu­is­hed by a spe­ci­al cho­i­ce of sub­jects, in­vent­ion of form and so­lu­tions ste­eped in the ar­tist’s ex­cept­io­nal ta­lent for aest­he­tics. Bes­ides his ar­tis­tic ac­ti­vity, he took on an out­stand­ing role in the Hun­ga­ri­an art scene th­ro­ugh the est­ab­lish­ment (1976) and or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on work of the Esz­ter­gom Pho­to­gra­phy Bi­en­ni­al. His thou­sands of pho­to­gra­phs have been inc­lu­ded in al­most two hund­red solo and even more group ex­hi­bit­ions, inc­lu­ding the one held in the Ernst Mus­e­um in 1995. He is the aut­hor of nu­me­rous pub­li­ca­tions and the or­ga­ni­ser of many pho­to­gra­phy events. He has been a re­gu­lar mem­ber of the Hun­ga­ri­an Aca­demy of Arts since 2012.

Vi­si­tors to And­rás Balla’s ex­hi­bit­ion in the Mű­csar­nok will be able to see a se­lec­ti­on ar­rang­ed into the­ma­tic units. There is a sense of re­sign­ed me­lanc­holy exu­ding from the ar­tist’s ima­ges of tran­sient, man­less lands­ca­pes and the be­auty of the world of man and ob­jects. The pho­to­gra­p­her does not mer­ely show us the vi­su­al start­ing points for his ima­ges but ini­tia­tes us, at times with hu­mo­rous as­so­ci­a­tions, into a mys­te­ri­o­us and mys­ti­cal world by re­ve­aling the spe­ci­al aest­he­tic value hid­den in even the most mun­da­ne ob­jects and na­tu­ral forms. The room de­vo­ted to his con­nec­ted, co­he­rent se­qu­en­ces is fol­lo­wed by his photo-novel fea­tu­ring a her­mit called Imre Bo­ros­tyán, as well as his pic­tu­res of his­to­ric gar­dens (Ver­sailles, Ti­vo­li, Bom­ar­zo) in­fu­s­ed with an after-the-rain am­bi­ance and, di­rectly cont­ras­ted with these, his home gar­den mi­li­e­us – ver­ging on kitsch – people build for them­sel­ves using shells, gar­den gno­mes ant­lers, awk­ward sculp­tu­res and knick-knacks. The third room pays a tri­bu­te to the Kö­rös­vi­dék (Crișana) with its man­less flo­odpla­in lands­ca­pes. And­rás Balla’s love of and respect for trees are ma­ni­fest in the disp­la­yed pa­no­ra­ma shots se­lec­ted from the pho­to­gra­p­her’s ear­li­er vo­lu­me tit­led Me­ne­dék (Shel­ter), while bes­ides the aest­he­ti­ci­sing forms of the comp­lex pat­terns of bran­ches, he uses dark, grim tones cal­ling at­tent­ion to the vul­ne­ra­bi­lity of na­tu­re and the dang­ers of up­sett­ing na­tu­re’s ba­lance.

Ma­ri­an­na Mayer

cura­tor of the ex­hi­bit­ion