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

ANNUAL REPORT 2005 - A 2005. ÉV - EDIT ANDRÁS: Metamorphoses: The Art of Woven Tapestry Past and Present

Comparison of international and Hungarian artworks attests that the foreign pieces are closer to the recent trends of contemporary art, while the Hungarian artworks are characterised chiefly by the high technical quality of their execution. Questions of identity, then, appeared mostly in works from abroad: Thomas Cronenberg, Jon Eric Riis, Agniete Janusaite, Kate Derum and Carol Duncan opened up historical vistas, allowing a glimpse into collective memory as well. Transformation engineered by science was also a common topic, especially by artists from the former Socialist Bloc (Renata Rozhivalova), perhaps because the paradigm of the rational approach and the link between modernism and science retained their influence mostly in this region. Characteristic of the Hungarian works was rather the celebration of nature and meditative and poetic tones (Ibolya Hegyi, Verona Szabó, Bea Bocz). The contemporary international art scene is dominated by reflections on the artist's responsibility and commitment to social and political issues, as well as focusing on a critical analysis of current problems. Such views appeared primarily in works from the English-speaking world (Barbara Heller), reflecting the fact that the theoretical discourse on these subjects originated in this linguistic region. Some related issues of these reflections were touched upon by artists from the Central European region, addressing, e.g., responsibility for environmental damage (Ildikó Dobrányi, Anna Buczkowska). Connected with the history of this region were also such themes as illness (Eva Nyerges, Tamás Oláh), physical and mental suffering, evanescence, remembrance (Eva Sipos, Rasma Noreikyté), death and the ever-recurring cycle of life (Lívia Pápai, Hajnal Baráth). The greatest number of the tapestries in the exhibition were in some way self-reflective, "conceptual" pieces. This sort of introspection signals the efforts of the genre for renewal, as well as the artists' approaches towards art, art history, and artistic interpretation (Joanna Foslien, Ann Nausdal, Eleonóra Pasqualetti). The theme of metamorphosis naturally incorporated the topic of the larger cultural context, and the evocation of visual traditions of preceding eras, the co-existence of past and present and their interrelatedness (Edit Balogh, Felixas Jakubauskas, Burn Soo Song, Gizella Solti). Several artists exploited the inherent analogies of text and weaving (Carol Duncan, Ariadna Donner), or referred to the classical solutions of the tapestry genre, as well as its use of colour (Ariadna Donner, Ildikó Dobrányi, Ibolya Hegyi), transforming these into the image of the present. Edit András