Curator: Kati Simon

Opening: 7 April, 2009, 7 pm

“… I have the feeling that no one is capable of conceiving a different and feasible system today. This, however, does not mean that we should shrug and acknowledge what we have right now. Even if not globally, each of us can be capable of making a difference within the scope of our competence. …” Mihály Vajda

Where is the euphoria and optimism that surrounded the collapse of the Berlin Wall? Where is the belief that the future of the individual, the community – perhaps even the world – can be changed, where is the determination to do something about it as a single person or as a collective?
Nearly 20 years after the definitive political and social changes, it seems we have fallen back into disenchantment and have lost our possible illusions. Amidst the general disinterest, we only dare pose the question hesitantly: is there a way out of this disenchantment? Are those who think the world can be changed mere dreamers? Is it possible for the individual to have any effect on the systems of his or her environment in the immediate or wider sense of the word?

The exhibition 'Try to make a simple gesture, no matter how small!' focuses on the potential of small gestures and tries to offer examples of small acts and artistic interventions that may have an effect on the systems of the given environment. The artistic concepts behind the works featured at the exhibition have been shaped along the lines of motivation which changes social and human situations (conditions, scenarios, etc.). The base of the works is reality itself, which the artist moves, by way of intervening, in a different direction. The motivation for intervention is the fulfilling of desires and the realisation of dreams on personal and social levels. In accordance with this, individuals or the community are faced with a new situation, an alternative present or a possible future, while gaining new perspective on their own lives, destinies, circumstances. Artistic intervention is minimal, often only symbolic and formal, just sufficient to flash us a glimpse of the imagined, if only for a moment, while also placing reality in a new light, and, in a sense, building a bridge between the two.

Open: Tuesday to Sunday 4–7 pm, and one hour before and after the performances

Accompanying program:

8 April, 2009, 7pm
Lumen Projection: Arthur Kleinjan
Moments of Considered Time
2008, 35 mm transferred to DVD, 19:25 minutes

Lumen Galéria, 1088 Budapest, Mikszáth Kálmán tér 2.
www.photolumen.hu

’Moments of Considered Time’ revolves around a series of photographs taken in Cairo, all of which depict couples courting along Cairo’s main bridges. The narrator discovers photographs which were left behind in a photo-lab but never picked up. They belonged to a press photographer who had since gone missing.
Fascination for the photos and the press photographer’s disappearance compels the narrator to visit the same locations as in the found pictures, and to re-photograph these locations and situations.
Through this search, the narrator leads the viewer into a web of thoughts by linking personal observations and experiences with the photographs’ social, political and historical connotations.

’Moments of Considered Time’ interweaves images of contemporary Cairo with the history of the invention of film and photography. This together with personal observations and memories creates a complex work which casts Cairo and its inhabitants in an anthropological and romantic light of dreamlike ambiguity.

’Moments of Considered Time’ is a reflection on photography, courtship, fiction and reality, and the time and space we define as memory.

www.arthurkleinjan.nl