George Eastman Hall

The József Pécsi Grant is among the most important, challenging and rewarding opportunities of introduction for young photographers. Over the 21 years since it was established in 1991, available for periods of one year, the grant has provided opportunity and assistance to a great number of excellent photographers to develop subjects current in form and content alike, and present them at an exhibition accompanied by a catalogue, forming an important stage in their artistic career. The annual exhibition and catalogue of 2012 presents the projects of two young photographers, Enikô Hangay and Viktor Váradi. The two artists take very similar existentialist problems as their point of departure: they explore rites of passage and identity-formation in adulthood through the aesthetic of daily life. in their series and installations, they endeavour to define their own situation and perspective, delineating it by photographically depicting their daily routines, expounding it along the lines of specific problems.

The series MotherShip by Enikő Hangay presents the significant, yet in contemporary art, rarely treated subject of motherhood based on the personal experience of the artist. Mother, child and the ancient medium of water organically intertwine into the single thematic thread of the photo series. In the narrative photographs, water takes the most diverse forms – playful reflective surface, rolling dark element, weltering mass in the awakening of spring –, but as an element that connects the world within and without, it always refers to the protective, rocking environment of the amniotic fluid. Complemented with maritime relics, its eternal circular motion evokes the excitement of travelling and exploration, a symbol of bipolar lifestyle between two continents, the development of the artist's personal life’s journey. Complemented with the object culture of juvenile existence built up of colours and forms, the surging mass of water outlines the instinctive and happy daily life of a mother, replete with tasks and changes.

Self-definition is a coordinate system drawn up along the artist’s self-reflexive questions, in which he tries to determine and interpret his own position. In this “guide”, similar to biological classifications, the influences forming the individual and his personality can be explored with the help of questions inquiring into identity forming factors: the structure is constructed along the lines of desires, fears, work and friends, past and present. Complete with blog entries, self-portraits and a video installation of personal tone, the project comprises an existentialist meditation of Viktor Váradi.

Through the explorative-narrative approach of Enikő Hangay and Viktor Váradi, the spaces and activities dulled into virtual invisibility become pivotal in the self-discovery and self-definition of an entire generation.

Szilvia Nagy
curator