Simonffy Márta: Tér Pontok. II. Szobrász Biennálé, MűvészetMalom, Szentendre 2012. (Budapest, 2012)
Introduction Szentendre, the small city founded by tradesmen of different nationalities arriving on the Danube, exploiting today its resources as a target for tourists, has become a venue for displaying contemporary sculpture for the second time. The four hundred square meters of the varied building complex of the Art Mill, that sometimes deceptively surpasses its own aesthetic values, is a suitable place for nearly everything. It is a medium exerting a positive influence on art. Therefore it can be stated that this premis consisting of beautiful spaces is predestined to be a forum of big national and international contemporary exhibitions and to provide support for the works on display, that otherwise could only be seen in ateliers The second Biennial of Sculpture organized this year presents a selection of works of art sent in by applicants for a national appeal including also foreign guest artists. The appeal was published by the Association of Hungarian Fine and Applied Artists and the syllabus of the exhibition was provided by Marta Simonffy, applied artist, the chairwoman of the Association. Biennial is an exhibition genre. The spread of biennials of specific genres and of thematic biennials is a response of the last twenty years for the necessity to present contemporary fine and applied arts in a representative way (apart from being an act of self-preservation). It is not a simple and a cheap genre, but it is permeated with subjective factors, and its exclusive reason for existence had been questioned, or at least competed and overshadowed by thematic exhibitions organized by trustees in the last decade. The survival and the bloom of biennials give the answer for the question whether the exchange with the exhibitions organized by trustees has been justifiable or not and how intensely it has influenced art itself. Symposiums were also established a long time ago and they are still functionings and are scenes for art very much in demand. In a similar way, specific biennials connected to cities are still welcome by the public and they still present great challenges for artists. So it would be a mistake to believe that keeping biennials alive means only forcing survival. The enthusiastic registrations demonstrate the intrinsic need that makes a national exhibition indispensable in contemporary art. Is it self-examination? Testing of ourselves? Or is it both completed with a sense of mission? In fact, a second biennial proves that it is predictable that in two years there will be another one and there will be another opportunity to present new works. Who was the appeal addressed to? It is quite significant that all biennial organizers have been aspiring to have all generations represented at their exhibitions. Still, it is very clear which generations the participants belong to and it is easy to determine the appearance of different groups of works and artistic strategies and their changes
