Peace on Earth! : Gyula Várnai. Utopia References

The catalogue presents the exhibition of Gyula Várnai in the Hungarian Pavilion at the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

The introductory essay by national commissioner Júlia Fabényi relates the utopias of the age and its faith in peace with the frenzied construction and industrialisation characterizing Eastern European urbanization and city development after World War 2. Her essay is crucial to understanding the artist’s work method, while giving a broader historical and local context to the interpretation of his works.

Curator Zsolt Petrányi places the exhibited works in a broader context, the references of which are in line with Gyula Várnai’s interest in and up-to-date knowledge of current trends in pop culture and music as well as science. Petrányi’s essay presents the exhibition’s general concept and particular works in relation to this frame of reference.

New media researcher Cameran Ashraf writes about the nature of information and the historical as well as futurological aspects of knowledge transfer. His text is a useful supplement to the piece I Want to Know Everything! at the Biennale, unravelling more complex layers of meaning underlying this work.

Artist Tilo Schulz’s writing is a personal letter to this artist, an artistic address giving us insight into the intellectual relationship between two creative minds. His lines recall the development of Várnai’s art, his earlier works and their interconnectedness.

The catalogue is closed by the Gyula Várnai’s text, wich is wrote for the videoproject the Artist’s Practice of Biennale Arte 2017.

Language: English