Memory as Identity
BY JUAN XU
“This is a story that has plagued me for 24 years. I instinctively switched the trauma to oil painting creation as a psychotherapy.”
Sandor Szasz
"Memory is identity... what you do makes you; what you do is rooted in your memory; what you remember defines yourself; when you forget your life, you Will will not be you until the end of death. (Julian Barnes)
Julian Barnes
Barnes determines established indisputably a single causual connection relationship between memory and identity as single causality in an irrelevant way. Reading By rhieading his articles, ,we would unconsciously recallfind the corresponding scenes in the movies or other artworks we have ever seen, in somehow and somewhere. In the interpretation of contemporary art, ideas the correspondence s more prominently between to ideas and works of art than to seems to be more prominent than the films.
It is not sure whether the Hungarian artist Sandor Szasz is familiar with Julian Barnes. What is certain is that his work body of work is is hard to reminiscent of a similar correspondence. So far, most of the articles about Szasz have are centered revolved aroundon his surrealist elements, especially the dystopian ruins and the end of the world. The interpretation of linking his artworks to the artist's early childhood memories and identities has been absent.
Today, nearly 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the process of homogenization interagtion in Europe continues to advance. The blend of East and West has reached an unprecedented heightlevel. Today, it is no longer appropriate to talk about the influence of Eastern political aesthetic experiences on the current art. On the surface, as the EU has expanded eastward, the Warsaw Pact countries rehave re-entered Western political discourse, and European integration has taken shape. Then, if we look at the current internal division of the EU closely, we can find thatit is still the about the identity anxiety of identity recognition caused by the seemingly ridiculous political aesthetic memory, under the superficial ideology, globalization, digitization and artificial intelligence.
The photography installation "Miracle Child" is a direct expression of the curious experience of his childhood school. The artist happened to have the same birthday with Nicolae Ceausescu (the highest leader of the Romanian Socialist Republic). In the 1980s, when the material was extremely scarce, he became a "miracle child" because of this coincidence to and goet the birthday presents from the government. This coincidence is in sharp contrast to his identity as a Hungarian minority on the margins of Romanian society.
By Ppresenting childhood situations memories in the form of using pictures as conceptually avant-garde pictures, both realistic and surreal, .Hhe intensifies intensified the sentimentality and confusion of the folk as sadness and impermanence of the fate and made the "identity" and "identification" of them strongly valuable. Therefore, the information of historical reality has entered a metaphysical surreal level, highlighting the "memory". A strong grip on reality.
Another Szasz’s work directly related to his childhood memories directly is his film "The Light sleeper ". It describes the artist's very personal but subversive experience.
“A few months before the collapse of the Eastern Block, Mom and I figured out that my sister had made another attempt and managed to flee to another country: she swam across the Fertő Lake , cut the electric fence, and arrived in Austria three days later.
She was found in a very bad condition on the west side of the lake, but the railman did not send her to hospital, and she was then on a train to the border of West Germany, where she waited for another two and half years to get the approval to leave for the US, a place she had been dreaming about since the age of 6.
As it turned out, now that my sister fled to the West, my mother lost her job.”
The story of Szasz’His sister’s escape from Romania is very legendary. In fact, this kind of story was not just a very special rare case at that time. , it was a social normal situation. The only difference is only that most people did’t have the courage like his sister. One may never expect that The real bizza of this story is that the sister was only 6 years old when she decided to run away. from home.
“This is a story that has plagued me for 24 years. I instinctively switched the trauma to oil painting creation as a psychotherapy.”
Sandor Szasz
"Memory is identity... what you do makes you; what you do is rooted in your memory; what you remember defines yourself; when you forget your life, you Will will not be you until the end of death. (Julian Barnes)
Julian Barnes
Barnes determines established indisputably a single causual connection relationship between memory and identity as single causality in an irrelevant way. Reading By rhieading his articles, ,we would unconsciously recallfind the corresponding scenes in the movies or other artworks we have ever seen, in somehow and somewhere. In the interpretation of contemporary art, ideas the correspondence s more prominently between to ideas and works of art than to seems to be more prominent than the films.
It is not sure whether the Hungarian artist Sandor Szasz is familiar with Julian Barnes. What is certain is that his work body of work is is hard to reminiscent of a similar correspondence. So far, most of the articles about Szasz have are centered revolved aroundon his surrealist elements, especially the dystopian ruins and the end of the world. The interpretation of linking his artworks to the artist's early childhood memories and identities has been absent.
Today, nearly 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the process of homogenization interagtion in Europe continues to advance. The blend of East and West has reached an unprecedented heightlevel. Today, it is no longer appropriate to talk about the influence of Eastern political aesthetic experiences on the current art. On the surface, as the EU has expanded eastward, the Warsaw Pact countries rehave re-entered Western political discourse, and European integration has taken shape. Then, if we look at the current internal division of the EU closely, we can find thatit is still the about the identity anxiety of identity recognition caused by the seemingly ridiculous political aesthetic memory, under the superficial ideology, globalization, digitization and artificial intelligence.
The photography installation "Miracle Child" is a direct expression of the curious experience of his childhood school. The artist happened to have the same birthday with Nicolae Ceausescu (the highest leader of the Romanian Socialist Republic). In the 1980s, when the material was extremely scarce, he became a "miracle child" because of this coincidence to and goet the birthday presents from the government. This coincidence is in sharp contrast to his identity as a Hungarian minority on the margins of Romanian society.
By Ppresenting childhood situations memories in the form of using pictures as conceptually avant-garde pictures, both realistic and surreal, .Hhe intensifies intensified the sentimentality and confusion of the folk as sadness and impermanence of the fate and made the "identity" and "identification" of them strongly valuable. Therefore, the information of historical reality has entered a metaphysical surreal level, highlighting the "memory". A strong grip on reality.
Another Szasz’s work directly related to his childhood memories directly is his film "The Light sleeper ". It describes the artist's very personal but subversive experience.
“A few months before the collapse of the Eastern Block, Mom and I figured out that my sister had made another attempt and managed to flee to another country: she swam across the Fertő Lake , cut the electric fence, and arrived in Austria three days later.
She was found in a very bad condition on the west side of the lake, but the railman did not send her to hospital, and she was then on a train to the border of West Germany, where she waited for another two and half years to get the approval to leave for the US, a place she had been dreaming about since the age of 6.
As it turned out, now that my sister fled to the West, my mother lost her job.”
The story of Szasz’His sister’s escape from Romania is very legendary. In fact, this kind of story was not just a very special rare case at that time. , it was a social normal situation. The only difference is only that most people did’t have the courage like his sister. One may never expect that The real bizza of this story is that the sister was only 6 years old when she decided to run away. from home.
“When I was young, my 8- years- older sister meoften told me that all the madness would end one day, but . Because I was too young and neverto understood understand what she was saying. She had promised to take me to “another” place. I always wanted to know where to go. However, she has had never told anyone about her secrets. I thought naively that the place she wanted to take me to was not far from the neighboring village. It had taken a long long time until I havediscovered that her "place" was not a village nearby us, but somewhere far far away."
Art is a personal act, but the content of expression is partly the result of collective memory. Especially in Eastern Europe, where historical traces are deep, the collective value orientation of various memories in the past has surfaced in the real life of the present and has become a common spiritual element of collective unsubconsciousness.
“„Personal, but also social”.
This video tells quietly in a peaceful way a thrilling story in an unhurried way. Through the survival picture of the old days in Romania and Hungary, it opens up a special experience, in which the social roles of contemporary art and identity in Eastern Europe are referenced.
Sandor Szasz is somewhat sensitive, and this sensitivity has almost invaded his artistic creations for nearly two decades. Similar to other Eastern European artists, he sought initially an artistic language in traditional oil paintings and later felt the need to useemploy more media to express emotions and thoughts. So he began to look for more dimensions of artistic expression. The artist turnedshifted to multimedia creation gradually: photography, pictures, paintings, installations, collages, images, documentaries. . .
In recent years, Szasz has focused on memory, representation, desire and subjective emotional feelings, and used art to examine how these factors influence the role of people in the current society. Unlike many Western artists, he does not use philosophical theory to explain his works, and he is somehow more like Transylvania's simple villagers and seems to value more emotional experiences. For him, experience itself embraces values and ideas.
This exhibition in e Tianjin includes exhibits a series of works, like "Golden Age", "Miracle child", "People Can Win the Sky", "I Love my Hometown", "New Society", "The Light Spleeper", "Feeling as Facts", etc.
Aartworks explores the interaction between memory and identity in the context of the individual family history and childhood experiences. Because of different economic and social developments, the installation as an art form was missing in the public space in Eastern Europe and has not entered the mainstream art language expression system of contemporary art.
The artist chose deliberately the language of the installation to present a sensuous and subtle multidimensional presence experience in the youth of Transylvania this time.
"I Love my hometown" is an Installation that looks ordinary, essentially textured and symbolic. The war-like dam video is reminiscent of the ambition of Ceausescu’s “golden” era, and at the same time, the tragic and resentful Transylvania that surrounds the walls of the tent is blended with the present. The vivid pictures, as well as the ideologically cheerful music in the old days, make people feel the cruelty of inhumanity in life, and unwittingly break into the surreal and absurd. This installation travels between historical facts, imagination and symbolism, and places people in the historical scene of Transylvania, but can’t be located on the exact time and space. It is both the past and the present, reminiscent of the film in the 1970s that was frustrated by German filmmaker Fassbinder. The aesthetic expression of Szazs may originate from western political philosophy, but it shows the emotions of the most Transylvania/Eastern Europe. It can be said that it is an extension of the scene of his painting dystopia.
Another installation that challenges people's visual ability in this exhibition is "New Society: A minimalistic space installation of housands of eggs with architectural latitude. People, who are not too sensitive even understand that its form is a strong visual contrast to "I Love my hometown", which makes people wonder if they are from Szasz’ own hands. In 1988, after the bombing of the neighboring village dam Bezidu Nou, a lot of people were displaced and their daily necessities became scarce. Eggs, as human common food, were symbols of a happy life in the era of Ceausescu in Romania.
The His artist's creation is full of the pain of life. This pain comes from the origins of his childhood in Transylvania, especially from his emotional appeal to the memories of the past historical suffering. Through this installation, Szasz makes the historical events in memory to reach the domino effect through countless eggs, and this effect itself gives the work a sociological significance. These minimalist and regular geometrically arranged eggs are hard to cause small visual shocks in the eccentric contemporary art scene. The artist hopes to express the real life aspect of the person through the "things", those are the eggs and pay attention to the situation of the villagers and their demands. The minimalist style of geometry shows Szazs' ability to manage emotions.
“Sometimes poetry becomes politics, sometimes politics becomes poetry.” Szasz’ artistic creation is a complicity between visual language and meaning. It avoids not only the grand narrative of the ideology of the old days, but also antisentimentality of capitalism, but emphasizes the social discourse based on special history and political age---- the conflict between individual and social identity.
Szasz is humble. He does not have the madness like Markus Lüpertz's : "Artists area bove God" and may not know much about the discourses of Sartre, Foucault, Derrida and other authorities. "Just" allows "memory" to challenge the real and fictional boundaries and as an art subversive strategy to expose the dangers of utopia, the absurdity of politics and the arbitrariness of those in power; let "identity" as the mainstream of the society against the oppression of minority groups. Szasz is not a person who uses philosophy to discuss issues, but it does not mean that he does not explore the ultimate problem of group, national destiny, and ideology. His questioning of the past is not from the grand narrative of past ideological habits, but from the memory of his childhood and the reality of his survival.
The artist's work reflects his own identity, including the identity of his own group in society and the world. As a Hungarian/Romanian artist, Szasz’ identity recognition is clearly positioned as an “Eastern artist”. His creations analyze the painful changes in the history of Eastern Europe, inner struggles, entanglements and anxieties, and the uncertainty of identity in the EU as a member of the former Eastern European group.
The social psychology of Szasz’s art visually constructs an artist who exists not only in art, but also like Beuys an artist in reality, including his own personal memories and experiences. The artist transforms the perceptual real life experience into artistic sound sources andconcerns naturally. His thinking is between subjective and objective, between reality and fiction, social and political, but also lyrical and poetic. At the same time, it can be said that rooted in the historical ruins of Eastern Europe (Romania and Hungary), escape, and individual experience, Sandor Szasz has constructed a unique art world of "walking" in concept and documentary, "memory" and identity.
11.11.2018
Art is a personal act, but the content of expression is partly the result of collective memory. Especially in Eastern Europe, where historical traces are deep, the collective value orientation of various memories in the past has surfaced in the real life of the present and has become a common spiritual element of collective unsubconsciousness.
“„Personal, but also social”.
This video tells quietly in a peaceful way a thrilling story in an unhurried way. Through the survival picture of the old days in Romania and Hungary, it opens up a special experience, in which the social roles of contemporary art and identity in Eastern Europe are referenced.
Sandor Szasz is somewhat sensitive, and this sensitivity has almost invaded his artistic creations for nearly two decades. Similar to other Eastern European artists, he sought initially an artistic language in traditional oil paintings and later felt the need to useemploy more media to express emotions and thoughts. So he began to look for more dimensions of artistic expression. The artist turnedshifted to multimedia creation gradually: photography, pictures, paintings, installations, collages, images, documentaries. . .
In recent years, Szasz has focused on memory, representation, desire and subjective emotional feelings, and used art to examine how these factors influence the role of people in the current society. Unlike many Western artists, he does not use philosophical theory to explain his works, and he is somehow more like Transylvania's simple villagers and seems to value more emotional experiences. For him, experience itself embraces values and ideas.
This exhibition in e Tianjin includes exhibits a series of works, like "Golden Age", "Miracle child", "People Can Win the Sky", "I Love my Hometown", "New Society", "The Light Spleeper", "Feeling as Facts", etc.
Aartworks explores the interaction between memory and identity in the context of the individual family history and childhood experiences. Because of different economic and social developments, the installation as an art form was missing in the public space in Eastern Europe and has not entered the mainstream art language expression system of contemporary art.
The artist chose deliberately the language of the installation to present a sensuous and subtle multidimensional presence experience in the youth of Transylvania this time.
"I Love my hometown" is an Installation that looks ordinary, essentially textured and symbolic. The war-like dam video is reminiscent of the ambition of Ceausescu’s “golden” era, and at the same time, the tragic and resentful Transylvania that surrounds the walls of the tent is blended with the present. The vivid pictures, as well as the ideologically cheerful music in the old days, make people feel the cruelty of inhumanity in life, and unwittingly break into the surreal and absurd. This installation travels between historical facts, imagination and symbolism, and places people in the historical scene of Transylvania, but can’t be located on the exact time and space. It is both the past and the present, reminiscent of the film in the 1970s that was frustrated by German filmmaker Fassbinder. The aesthetic expression of Szazs may originate from western political philosophy, but it shows the emotions of the most Transylvania/Eastern Europe. It can be said that it is an extension of the scene of his painting dystopia.
Another installation that challenges people's visual ability in this exhibition is "New Society: A minimalistic space installation of housands of eggs with architectural latitude. People, who are not too sensitive even understand that its form is a strong visual contrast to "I Love my hometown", which makes people wonder if they are from Szasz’ own hands. In 1988, after the bombing of the neighboring village dam Bezidu Nou, a lot of people were displaced and their daily necessities became scarce. Eggs, as human common food, were symbols of a happy life in the era of Ceausescu in Romania.
The His artist's creation is full of the pain of life. This pain comes from the origins of his childhood in Transylvania, especially from his emotional appeal to the memories of the past historical suffering. Through this installation, Szasz makes the historical events in memory to reach the domino effect through countless eggs, and this effect itself gives the work a sociological significance. These minimalist and regular geometrically arranged eggs are hard to cause small visual shocks in the eccentric contemporary art scene. The artist hopes to express the real life aspect of the person through the "things", those are the eggs and pay attention to the situation of the villagers and their demands. The minimalist style of geometry shows Szazs' ability to manage emotions.
“Sometimes poetry becomes politics, sometimes politics becomes poetry.” Szasz’ artistic creation is a complicity between visual language and meaning. It avoids not only the grand narrative of the ideology of the old days, but also antisentimentality of capitalism, but emphasizes the social discourse based on special history and political age---- the conflict between individual and social identity.
Szasz is humble. He does not have the madness like Markus Lüpertz's : "Artists area bove God" and may not know much about the discourses of Sartre, Foucault, Derrida and other authorities. "Just" allows "memory" to challenge the real and fictional boundaries and as an art subversive strategy to expose the dangers of utopia, the absurdity of politics and the arbitrariness of those in power; let "identity" as the mainstream of the society against the oppression of minority groups. Szasz is not a person who uses philosophy to discuss issues, but it does not mean that he does not explore the ultimate problem of group, national destiny, and ideology. His questioning of the past is not from the grand narrative of past ideological habits, but from the memory of his childhood and the reality of his survival.
The artist's work reflects his own identity, including the identity of his own group in society and the world. As a Hungarian/Romanian artist, Szasz’ identity recognition is clearly positioned as an “Eastern artist”. His creations analyze the painful changes in the history of Eastern Europe, inner struggles, entanglements and anxieties, and the uncertainty of identity in the EU as a member of the former Eastern European group.
The social psychology of Szasz’s art visually constructs an artist who exists not only in art, but also like Beuys an artist in reality, including his own personal memories and experiences. The artist transforms the perceptual real life experience into artistic sound sources andconcerns naturally. His thinking is between subjective and objective, between reality and fiction, social and political, but also lyrical and poetic. At the same time, it can be said that rooted in the historical ruins of Eastern Europe (Romania and Hungary), escape, and individual experience, Sandor Szasz has constructed a unique art world of "walking" in concept and documentary, "memory" and identity.
11.11.2018