Feelings as Facts - Memory as Identity , Tianjin/ China 2018-2019
Feelings as Facts
- Memory as Identity
感受即真实
-记忆与身份认同
Curator: Juan Xu，Wang Weiyi
策展人：庸现，王伟毅
Artist: Sándor Szász
艺术家：桑多· 萨斯
Organizer: Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum
举办单位： 天津美术学院美术馆，
In co-operation with 合作机构：
I O Cultural Network e.V. 德国艺术联网协会
Michael Michael Schultz Gallery, Germany 德国柏林舒尔茨画廊
Hungarian Academy of Arts 匈牙利艺术科学院
Opening: 15.12.2018 15:00
开幕式 2018年12月15日 下午三点
Date: 15.12.2018-10.01.2019
时间： 2018年12月15号 至2019年1月10日
Location: Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Tianjin, China
地点：天津美术学院美术馆
Foreword to "Feelings as Facts"
Juan Xu/ Wang Weiyi
“Memory is identity....You are what you have done; what you have done is in your memory; what you remember defines who you are; when you forget your life you cease to be, even before your death.”
Julian Barnes
Joy, bitterness, sunshine, gloom, everything lingers in us as memories. Who am I? How do I define myself? This is an eternal problem, and in Eastern Europe, where history and geopolitics have a major impact on everyday life and reality, such issues are even more complicated.
Today, nearly 30 years after the end of the Cold War, social, economic, political and cultural integration continues in Europe. Eastern and Western Europe seem to have merged and the influence of the political aesthetic experience of Eastern Europe on contemporary artmaking seems to be out of place as a result. On the surface the eastward expansion of the EU 'project' has changed the political logic of the West, and European integration has taken shape.However, when we look closely at the current internal divisions within the EU we find that under the surface of ideology, globalization, digitization and artificial intelligenceridiculous anxieties continue to exist aboutidentity cognitionthat are caused by both political and aesthetic memories.
The well-known Romanian-born Hungarian artist Sándor Szász focuses on the use of memory, representation, desire and his emotional feelings in artworks to examine how all of these factors influence the role of individuals and minorities in contemporary European society. In particular the artist's memories enable him to challenge the boundaries between reality and fiction by using his art as a subversive strategy for exposing the dangers of utopia and the absurdity and overbearing of totalitarian politics.
The artist's works reflect both his own identity and the identity of his own minority group in European society and the world. As a Hungarian/Romanian artist, Szasz’s identity is clearly positioned as an “Eastern Europeanartist”.Szasz’s creations analyze theinner struggles, entanglements and anxieties of his own individual life since World War II, as well as the major historical transformations and uncertain identities of the members of former Eastern Block countries in the EU due to ongoing geopolitical change.
Szasz's artworks also reflect the results of collective memory. In Eastern Europe, where historical memory-traces are deep, the value of collective memories of the past has surfaced in the real life of today and become a common spiritual element of collective unconsciousness. In this context Szász, like other Eastern European artists, uses different media to open up a unique experience of the social role of contemporary art and identity in Eastern Europe today.
When Szász tries to define his own identity and memories according to his own feelings, we sense the wavering and perplexity of the artist and also recognise ourselves in these artworks. Reviewing and examining history in such artworks allows us all to better negotiate and face an unknown future.
- Memory as Identity
感受即真实
-记忆与身份认同
Curator: Juan Xu，Wang Weiyi
策展人：庸现，王伟毅
Artist: Sándor Szász
艺术家：桑多· 萨斯
Organizer: Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum
举办单位： 天津美术学院美术馆，
In co-operation with 合作机构：
I O Cultural Network e.V. 德国艺术联网协会
Michael Michael Schultz Gallery, Germany 德国柏林舒尔茨画廊
Hungarian Academy of Arts 匈牙利艺术科学院
Opening: 15.12.2018 15:00
开幕式 2018年12月15日 下午三点
Date: 15.12.2018-10.01.2019
时间： 2018年12月15号 至2019年1月10日
Location: Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Tianjin, China
地点：天津美术学院美术馆
Foreword to "Feelings as Facts"
Juan Xu/ Wang Weiyi
“Memory is identity....You are what you have done; what you have done is in your memory; what you remember defines who you are; when you forget your life you cease to be, even before your death.”
Julian Barnes
Joy, bitterness, sunshine, gloom, everything lingers in us as memories. Who am I? How do I define myself? This is an eternal problem, and in Eastern Europe, where history and geopolitics have a major impact on everyday life and reality, such issues are even more complicated.
Today, nearly 30 years after the end of the Cold War, social, economic, political and cultural integration continues in Europe. Eastern and Western Europe seem to have merged and the influence of the political aesthetic experience of Eastern Europe on contemporary artmaking seems to be out of place as a result. On the surface the eastward expansion of the EU 'project' has changed the political logic of the West, and European integration has taken shape.However, when we look closely at the current internal divisions within the EU we find that under the surface of ideology, globalization, digitization and artificial intelligenceridiculous anxieties continue to exist aboutidentity cognitionthat are caused by both political and aesthetic memories.
The well-known Romanian-born Hungarian artist Sándor Szász focuses on the use of memory, representation, desire and his emotional feelings in artworks to examine how all of these factors influence the role of individuals and minorities in contemporary European society. In particular the artist's memories enable him to challenge the boundaries between reality and fiction by using his art as a subversive strategy for exposing the dangers of utopia and the absurdity and overbearing of totalitarian politics.
The artist's works reflect both his own identity and the identity of his own minority group in European society and the world. As a Hungarian/Romanian artist, Szasz’s identity is clearly positioned as an “Eastern Europeanartist”.Szasz’s creations analyze theinner struggles, entanglements and anxieties of his own individual life since World War II, as well as the major historical transformations and uncertain identities of the members of former Eastern Block countries in the EU due to ongoing geopolitical change.
Szasz's artworks also reflect the results of collective memory. In Eastern Europe, where historical memory-traces are deep, the value of collective memories of the past has surfaced in the real life of today and become a common spiritual element of collective unconsciousness. In this context Szász, like other Eastern European artists, uses different media to open up a unique experience of the social role of contemporary art and identity in Eastern Europe today.
When Szász tries to define his own identity and memories according to his own feelings, we sense the wavering and perplexity of the artist and also recognise ourselves in these artworks. Reviewing and examining history in such artworks allows us all to better negotiate and face an unknown future.
