Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 102-103. (Budapest, 2005)

ANNUAL REPORT 2005 - A 2005. ÉV - KATA BODOR: Exhibition of Magdalena Abakanowicz

the Abakans. These embryos could be the start of something new, yet they are petrified, withered and dried shapes, which are never to develop. The existential hopelessness in the 1970s and 80s in Eastern Europe is a phenomenon that needs no further explanation

—neither does the feeling expressed through the mass of headless, hunched figures. Abakanowicz's Alterations series was represented at the exhibition by Heads (1973-75) and Backs (1976-82). Anonymous Portrait, born at the wake of the political changes (1988-89), with the wrinkles pressed deeply in the face, is a memento to the indelible past, with a strong impact similar to that of the perhaps best known cycle of Abakanowicz, executed as open-air sculptures: Crowd, an installation formed by headless, life-size figures. The apparently identical figures standing in a row envisaged the dissolution of the individual. But if we examine them closely, it becomes clear that each figure is a bit different, each surface sculpted in a unique way, with only their forced existence as a community rendering them uniform. The art of Abakanowicz refers to the individual's place in the world, in nature, in the community; about the relationship between the swiftly passing present and eternity; about the tension between the crowds of people around us and our solitude within; about the hopelessness of stillborn ideas. And while she is speaking of anxiety and loneliness, she does not offer a solution, since holding up a mirror to a world, which is unable to face up to the facts, is task enough in itself. Kata Bodor