[Exhibiting artists: Albert Ádám, Asztalos, Barakonyi, Borsos János, Bolygó Bálint, Csáky Marianne, Csontó Lajos Csörgő Attila, Domokos Gábor és Várkonyi Péter (Gömböc), Dourmana, Petko, Eike, Garami Richárd, Gyenis Tibor, IRWIN, Július Gyula, Kerekes Gábor Kokesch Ádám, Kotter, Hans, Köves Éva és Sztojánovics Andrea, Lakner Antal, Mátrai Erik, Miyajima, Tatsuo, Nemzetközi Kepes Társaság, Opie, Julien, Oursler, Tony, Pacsika Rudolf és Kozma Zoltán, Saraceno, Tomas, Sina, Alejandro, Szabó Ágnes, Szegedy-Maszák Zoltán, Fernezelyi Márton, Szvet Tamás, Várnai Gyula, Waliczky Tamás, Wood, John és Harrison, Paul.]
The Kepes Institute is a fresh, crisp art institution created by private individuals. The building in downtown Eger houses a permanent Kepes exhibition and three floors of exhibition space. Here you can see the exhibition Second Degree Equations, on most of the floors. Not much is yet known about the Institute's plans for the future, but it seems certain that we must keep our fingers crossed for them.
Second Degree Equations is a very nice title. In the average Hungarian mathematical literacy, it is the boundary stone between the known and the unknown. To solve second-degree equations, we use a formula that almost all of us have learned, called a solver formula. Many of us have solved countless equations with it, we have learned it by heart, but the secret of its operation has remained forever hidden from us. It was simply not part of the high school curriculum. I know that here and now, swapping my word processor for a browser, I could learn the truth. But would it be worth an uncertain amount of strained thinking to destroy a magical sign?
"The exhibition brings together works that have an important feature in expressing an attitude of naturalism." The text between the quotation marks are from Attila Szabó, who curated the exhibition.
We know science. It has been with us throughout our school days in the form of subjects, and nowadays it is a programme in the bottom third of cable TV. There is good science and bad science, like the bad science of discovering the ozone hole and the nitrogen bomb. But discovering the dishwasher is good for family peace. To be serious, science for us is primarily embodied in technology, whether it is the solver formula or a computer. We know which button to press and what will happen, but we know nothing about the processes that make things work. Not because we are stupid. Worse: we don't care.
Science and art have accompanied each other for as long as they have existed. A Renaissance painter of some skill could have sectioned the perspective of the floor in his painting, although he could just as easily have drawn it by hand. From an artistic point of view, technology is prestige, science is a distant continent, full of exotic motifs. The question is not how science and art are related, but what science means in art. The nature of art means that there is no general answer to this question.
In the Renaissance approach, science is the handmaiden of art. The technical tools are the representators of the magical image, and the magical image is an aesthetic ready made object. It exists because the technology is capable of creating it. A hologram is arguably superior to any other imaging device in its ability to represent space, its colours shine brighter than any pigment. Finally, its visual impact is impressive enough that the artwork does not raise uncomfortable questions about its own meaning.
n the Enlightenment approach, science (especially geometry and mathematics) is stands alone and self-explanatory good. Enlightenment works are born in a new age religious piety. Science is presented as the noblest activity of the human spirit. There is no mention of technology; such works do not expose their subject to the trials of ugly matter. What will mathematics become if it is forced to perform mundane tasks such as Facebooking, encased in a cheap plastic case? Of course, some people are experimenting with this, building ideal machines of geometry out of wire, slats and electric motors.
In the postmodern approach, science is mere technology, and is juxtaposed to the other intellectual matrices that make up the artifact. In this world, nothing has intrinsic value or meaning. Technology simply serves to produce the philosophical spectacle imagined by the creator. The magical image here is a shadow cast on a cave wall, an illusion derived from reality.
If we have come this far, we must stop for a moment. Illusion is a very common material in works that flirt with science. We could say that all representation is illusion, but let's look a little closer.We can see a whole pile of artworks that present illusions based on optical illusion or virtual reality. Plato says that to create illusions is a lie, but in the present situation, the destruction of illusions is as important as their creation. It is the dramatic situation that provides the opportunity for catharsis, and it is this that artists use to the best of their ability.
All we have to do is push the button.What will happen? Anyone who watches will know.