Szilárd Cseke: Sustainable Identities / Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015

Szilárd Cseke represents Hungary at this year’s Venice Art Biennale. On view in the Hungarian Pavilion are three artworks, Multiple Identities, Sustainable Development, and the sound installation More and more! (in collaboration with Ábris Gryllus). The centerpiece of the exhibition is the installation Multiple Identities that consists of foil tubes in which balls are moved by electric fans. The show is titled Sustainable Identities and is curated by Kinga German.

Szilárd Cseke was born in Pápa, Hungary. He lives and works in Budapest. Having finished his Master’s degree in painting, Cseke graduated from the University of Pécs in 1995. He began to create mobile objects in the mid-90s. His works demonstrate social and economic processes, with particular emphasis on the themes of migration and the search for identity. He has garnered an array of awards, including the Munkácsy Prize in 2014 and the Derkovits Scholarship in 1997.

Szilárd Cseke: Sustainable Identities / Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015. Preview, May 7, 2015.

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Excerpt from the press release:

The works of Cseke Szilárd often investigate global issues, and questions of identity are frequently brought into collision with themes of migration and personal decision-making, thus alluding to sustainability with the combination of found and recycled objects. Szilárd Cseke’s composition is a site-specific installation dealing with the complexities of identities.

To the left of the entrance there is a sound installation in the round hall of the pavilion. It is the work of Cseke and Ábris Gryllus, the latter of whom was invited by the artist and the curator to collaborate on the exhibition. Upon stepping inside, after having read the concept description at the entrance, visitors come across 7 foil tubes stretched above them between the walls. In the upper section of the exhibition space, at a height of 235-405 cm, polystyrene balls roll in the floating paths stretched between the opposing walls along the horizontal axis of the space. The tubes contain white balls in motion, propelled by fans. The shifts in airflow are regulated by a programmable electronic control.
The space installation includes a pillow-like foil cushion which with its perpetual inflation and deflation evokes the feeling of a “centre” that sustains the system. Light-emitting tubes consisting of LED lamps simultaneously enrich the installation as spatial straight lines.

In the atrium of the pavilion there is a unique composition which visitors can make legible using, for example, white chalk-balls. The inner courtyard as an interactive space further enhances the concept with wall boards, which are present in all cultures, and give visitors a chance to explore and leave their mark. They will also find postcards that they can take with them and send to other countries. The atrium walls were designed by students of the
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME) in cooperation with the artist and the curator.

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