Fazekas Valéria (Budapest, 1982)
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY HAT-SCULPTURE? Anyone who thought that something must be either a hat or a sculpture (after having decided that you would need afar-out post-modern imagination to linktwo such remotely differentthings) should think again after seeing Valéria Fazekas1 works. Once you have taken a closer look at one such article, touched its material, put it on your head, pulled it in your face and restyled it to your personal liking, you have probably also developed an understanding forthe essential idea of hat-sculpture. Of course, it is not easy toface up to the realization that it is not a charmingly beautiful and capriciously attractive headgear, which crowns our temple, nor is it some craftily selected and cleverly designed fabric that counterbalances the deep, sincere and mysterious expression of our eyes, nor is it some cunning structure that benevolently casts a shadow over the irregular features of our bushy head. Although in this case we have seemingly put a hat on our head, in reality we are actually sporting a formation constructed of simple forms, delineated in three dimensions, and going through subtle changes according to the mood we happen to be in, which can best be described as a sculpture. We must acquiesce to the factthatto all practical purposestheheadservesasthepedestalforthis sculpture; in carrying the hat, our head presents and emphasizes the spatial forms in the same mannerthat African women balancethose massive baskets on thetop of their head. Valéria Fazekas' hats - just as all the other hats - are about materials and forms; yet the manner in which the artist treats them is akin to the sculptor's treatment, whose fingers shape the material,