The theory of Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel Prize laureate Austrian physicist, allows us to have some insight into the complexities of quantum physics. The question of whether the cat placed in a sealed box in his famous thought experiment is alive or dead illustrates the actual state of superposed particles.
Zoltán Bánföldi’s series titled Schrödinger’s Cat (2020) simultaneously shows Vienna in the late 19th century and today. A few years ago, during his scholarship in Vienna, the artist was looking for locations in the city that were more or less the same as he saw in photographs taken of the Austrian capital 100-120 years before. He (re)-captured these places in new photographs and, using computer technology, he melded the time dimensions to create two intentionally inseparable layers. He then printed these photographs onto canvases and applied oil mixed with beeswax onto them using the ancient technique of encaustic painting. After this he affixed shiny mosaic pieces onto the canvases and finally added lively gestures using a modern technique he himself calls ‘colourful shifts’. Thus, the distant and more recent pasts of the old and new photographs were layered onto each other to create a third kind of past, one closer to the present, and resulted in peculiarly constructed pictures forever frozen in time. For viewers placing themselves in the superposed dimension the temporal and spatial features of this urban environment as well as the ancient and modern artistic techniques blend together.
Curator : Réka Fazakas
From 1988 to 1991 Zoltán Bánföldi studied at the painting department of the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague (Netherlands). Between 1991 and 1995 he attended the painting department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, where he completed the postgraduate programme from 1992 to 1995 and the DLA programme from 2006 and 2009.
His works are characterised by expressive painterly gestures, broadly applied calligraphic compositions and shifted layers of bright colours. He has been working with beeswax for more than 20 years enabling him to achieve idiosyncratic layered surfaces and colour effects. He uses elements and techniques of film and photography in his medial works.
He is the founder of the Hungarian Paper Art Society and the ″C” Group, the latter of which was active from 1993 to 1997. He has been exhibiting his art regularly since 1992. His works can be found in public collections in Budapest (Collection of Contemporary Art of the Hungarian National Gallery, Ludwig Museum, Kiscell Museum and others) and in the rest of Hungary. He lives in Budapest and works in Szentendre.
Simultaneously – Studio Visits
Zoltán Bánföldi | Zsófia Bérczi | Győző Byhon | Gábor Fülöp | Réka Gergely | Tibor Pataki | Péter Rizmayer | Nóra Soós | László Tenk
MŰCSARNOK Kunsthalle Budapest | 28 October 2020 – 10 January 2021
http://mucsarnok.hu/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?mid=N1EB4zaRWOFl8KrOxHvOTY
virtual opening: https://www.facebook.com/events/788612371708763