What Crisis?

Two exhibitions with money in the Studio of Young Artists’


rom the West comes a warrior to pillage all who are not resistant. But who is to blame? Is it the warrior, or is it the foundations we base our keeps on? Surely we are talking about the global economic crisis, which has been a long time coming, but has made its strongest impact with the recent US bank and loan market collapse, and everybody knew it had arrived when even Lehman Brothers gave in. Crises regularly and necessarily come sooner or later in a sequence that cannot be precisely foretold. A Pandora’s box or whatever you like – to speak in mythological terms, when we cannot find comfort in scientific explanations. The warrior, therefore, cannot be blamed. It is inevitable.
The warrior metaphor came to my mind from the art world, where many allegories are evoked. More precisely, from the money-work of Miklós Mécs, who presented one of the most striking recent installations, that communicates with the symbols of the economic crisis. In the artist’s work, this Achilles warrior is not represented as a conqueror (but as a figure from a philosophical parable: Achilles and the tortoise), but he certainly is menacing, drawn on the 50 Euro banknote.
There is a crisis, but the roots probably go deeper than the financial problems touching social institutions and moral values. Money is used to give value (in other words, to measure things), and this is the way the artist has used it, too.
The artist was the recipient of the 2008 Junior Prima Prize, founded by Hungarian businessman János Demján as an award for the cultural sector independent from politics. The Junior Prima Prize includes a premium – which Mécs used as material for his installation in a unique way.
He split the sum he received in two, slicing up half of the banknotes.
The thrilling destruction of an extremely important symbol of our era did not end in itself.
The two parts of 50-Euro notes were part of an installation in which the visitors to the show also took part. Participants were photographed holding a note that was given to them. The entire event was filmed and edited into an interesting video.
Furthermore, as we learned from an audio installation, the money did not entirely lose its value, as it could be deposited with a certain percentage of loss deducted.
The smaller, sliced-off part of the notes rested on a small altar guarded by a golden mouse totem.
The artwork and the event that took place on November 3 at the Studio Gallery may have been both shocking and gripping.
But is this an action that is based on simple demolition, or is it something that criticizes the system? It would seem to be the latter. Especially as Mécs marked his own place in the system as a re-distributor of wealth by giving the money back to the audience.
Another young artist, Csaba Uglár, likewise defines value in an autonomous way, creating his own money: Social.
As we step into the exhibition space, we find ourselves in an office, and in a second reality of a parallel universe where Social is introduced as a new currency.
On the wall, we read Uglár’s guarantee for all the possessors of Social a share stake in all of his future artworks, freely chosen by the individual.
It is an ingenius twist on a practice already existent in the snobbish art world, where wealthy collectors often buy pieces of artworks that have not yet even been seen, or that are not even finished.
On closer examination, in a twisted way this situation turns the negative into positive, as the relation between the collector and the artist is based on trust. And trust is what gives value to these banknotes – or Uglárnotes.
On the other hand, I doubt that the artist considered this show as a real investment for himself, but rather as a symbolic situation of whether we give trust to art that states value. The work underlines an important, timely issue in the Hungarian public sphere: the scarce trust towards official institutions from the side of the people. The work does not provide a solution to the problem, but is rather a self-reflective question on art and its role in society.


Executive secretary Áron Fenyvesi reflects on young artists’ works in the Studio:

These two works focus on the same problem, choosing totally different approaches and solutions. I would say that they conceptualize money from different perspectives. One thinks of money as a piece of paper, a material and not a common symbol of wealth in our society. Miklós Mécs simply ignored the symbolic rules of our society for one night in the Studio Gallery, and thus, his animation drawn on euros is powerful.
Uglár, on the other hand, created a new matrix of symbols, and printed his own money. He considers his artwork – “paper”, as a deposit for investments in his future. With this gesture, based on economic trust in improving social conditions, he provides an important answer to our current situation. I think substantive and dynamic answers to the economic crisis in the art world must come from the non-profit sector. Some artists in the Studio (not only Mécs and Uglár) are flexible and conceptual enough to react to current social issues.

Csaba Uglár: Social
Until January 24, Studio Gallery
http://studio.c3.hu
http://mecsmiki.blogspot.com/


Pictured: Artist Miklós Mécs holding his part of a cut 50 Euro bank note.

Gábor Döme

15.01.2009