Eszter Szabó

Installation

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Double Take is the moment when an unexpected spectacle steps out from the stream of perception and - though we already went past it - we turn back to take a look again. The aim of this project is to dig out conventions in everyday life to which we are so used that they become invisible. As examples of these conventions public statues are going to be recreated virtually and animated in a subversive way.

Focusing on the arrogance of the main figure and the subservience of the supporting cast, the short animation loops are aiming to dislodge the characters from their originally prescribed roles. The allegories are in an everlasting struggle to endure and to revolt against suppressive power by intermittently attempting to prick, deflate, melt or by finding different ways to let it down.

The hijacking of the stately statue of Jules Ferry is one of the first pieces of this. Jules Ferry was a statesman after whom many schools, streets, metro stations and a refugee center are named, and who believed that “superior races have the right to civilize inferior races.” Double Take / Jules Ferry challenges this credo by deconstructing the harmony of the statue, which represents an ideology that takes for granted the urge to “civilize”.

Eszter Szabó

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2000-2006 Hungarian University of Fine Arts (MKE), Painting Faculty, Budapest, Hungary
2014 AC Institute 179. New York, USA
2013 Ludwig Museum « Leopold Bloom Art Award », Budapest, Hungary
2012 Manhattan Bridge, « Codex Dynamic », New York, USA
2010 FIAC (Videospace Gallery), « C’est combien le kilo ? », Paris

Production

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Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing

Acknowledgments

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Cyril Teste, Aleski Aubry-Carlson, Viktor Vicsek (http://limelight.hu/), Gábor Papp, Barna Gábor Botond / XORXOR (http://xorxor.hu/), Daniela Delgado Viteri, Rajwa Tohmé, Daniel Dobbels, Jean-Jacques Gay, Madeleine Van Doren, Massimiliano Simbula, Bálint Benkovits, Zádor Tamás (Glowing Bulbs), François Bedhomme.