ATTILA CSÖRGŐ – Squaring the Circle

The works of Hungarian artist Attila Csörgő are demonstrating the intersections between art, science and technology in a highly sophisticated, ironic and playful manner not taken too seriously the dignity of “grand art” and the sturdiness of “big science”. His exhibited objects, photographs, mixed media installations and meticulously constructed mechanical and optical structures are the results of long process of pseudo-scientific experiments, using the old “trial and error” method of solving problems. All of his works are proposals of variant solutions for fundamental questions on the mechanism of perception, the relations between space, light and time, the possible distinction between illusion and constructed reality.

Csörgő uses the knowledge of the natural sciences, all the “historical distillation” of the idea and theory of mathematics, physics, kinetics, optics, geometry and the others, in a very personal and poetic way, concentrating on to find the most relevant formal and material appearance of his thoughts. There is an apparent tension, between the “poor” looking of the objects, kind of “arte povera esthetics” of the works’ appearance and the complex and sophisticated stream of thoughts embodied in the constructions. He keeps the process and mechanisms visible and transparent no any details are hidden in his machines, provided this way an exciting and joyful intellectual adventure for the viewers to explore and follow the logic of the work and enjoy the visual formulation of scientific theorems and assumptions.

In this show Csörgő exhibits works which are dealing with his main topics: the relation between time and space to catch the notion of infinite, the poetic investigation of the basic geometrical forms like circle and square and the age-long experiment to explore the photographic method to record and represent the continuity of space instead of the fragmented discontinuity of the framed single images.

In his kinetic-light construction entitled “Clock-work” Csörgő attempts to visualize the sense of infinity through the conversion between the spatial dimensions using light and shadows and combining the projection with the motion of a clock hand. The symbol of the infinite, scholarly called “lemniscate”, the shape of a horizontal 8 is drawn by the shadow of the clock hand. Instead of the round shape of the dial where one can gain exact information, the shadow of the three-dimensional object represents the endless flow of time.

The “Squaring the Circle” is a sophisticated light-sculpture examining the age-old famous mathematical task, which became a proverb metaphorically phrasing the impossibility of certain attempt or identifying unsolvable problem. To take this challenge could be treated as a heroic or an ironic gesture, but the visual experience is striking and convincing. The irradiated round shape from above cast a real square form onto the floor, so obviously the impossible have been made possible by the artist.

 

Barnabás Bencsik

 

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Barnabás Bencsik – a curator, critic and historian of art, the former director of Ludwig Múzeum in Budapest. He is the author of many publications concerning contemporary art and a leading figure on the Hungarian art scene.

 

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Attila Csörgő – born in 1965 in Budapest. In 1994 he graduated from the Faculty of Painting and Faculty of the Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. He also studied at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. He creates installations which combine photography, sculpture and drawing, inspired by topics from the area of mathematics and physics. In his continuing investigation of the mechanisms of perception, he analyses the relationships between plane, time and space, making use of the attainments of such disciplines as kinetics, optics and geometry. The results of his experiments are often surprising, amusing and even poetic. He participated in numerous individual and collective exhibitions, e.g. dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel (2102), the 16^th Biennale of Sydney (2008) and the 8^th Istanbul Biennale (2003). He represented Hungary at the 48^th Biennale in Venice (the Hungarian Pavilion) in 1999. Laureate of the Nam June Paik Award (2008). His works are exhibited in many international collections, e.g. at Centre Pompidou, MUDAM in Luxemburg and Ludwig Múzeum in Budapest. He cooperates with Galerija Gregor Podnar in Berlin.

 

translated from Polish by Klaudyna Michałowicz

 

 

2014 Squaring the Circle, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2013 Shapes in Transition, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin
2012 Kunsthalle Mainz. Duo show with Roman Signer, Mainz, Germany
2011 Secession, Vienna
Archimedean Point, Hamburger Kunsthalle – Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburg
2010 Archimedean Point, MUDAM, Luxembourg
2009 Archimedean Point, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest,
Domaine de Kerguéhennec, France
Magnet Spring, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin
2008 Wurfelbahnen und Raumkurven Museum Folkwang im RWE Turm, Essen, Germany
2007 Platonic Geometry, Galeria Arsenał, Białystok, Poland
2006 Galleria Contemporaneo, Mestre, Venice, Italy
Skin of Space, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Słowenia
2004 Platonic love, Kettles Yard, University of Cambridge, UK
2002 Peeled City, Art in General, New York
2001 Le Fresnoy Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing, France
1999 Altered States,Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia (with Antal Lakner)

 

2015 Quantum of Disorder, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland
2014 Coffee & Ink, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota, Colombia
This Secret World that Exist Right There in Public, Rampa Istanbul, Turkey
To continue. Notes towards A Sculpture Cycle, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Co widać. Polska Sztuka Dzisiaj. Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej, Warsaw
2013 NO Questions, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, Switzerland
Projections, Musée de l’Abbaye Sainte Croix, Les Sables d’Olonnes, France
New opening. New beginning, Local_30, Warsaw
Turbulences II, Villa Empain – Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
2012 Les amas d’Hercule, Parc Saint Léger Centre d’Art Contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux, France
Turbulences, Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris
Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany
2011 AR- Artistic Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA
Wir sind alle Astonauten, MARTa Herford, Germany
Seeing Things, Kleine Humboldt Galerie, Berlin
2010 The Promises of the Past, Centre Pompidou, Paris
2009 Go East II, MUDAM, Luxembourg

 

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