Pagony Rita és Olasz Miklós kiállítása (Dorottya Streat Gallery, Budapest, 1983)

The Municipal Council of Faenza has announced an international competition entitled CONCORSO ARREDO URBANO INTERVENTI CON MATERIALE CERAMICO to design open-air ceramics of use and of artistic value. The town is offering itself to accommodate an emblematic environment, buildings or monuments symbolizing the traditions of local ceramics and pottery. The main motif of the monument designed by us is a huge architectural element made of bricks and turned into a vase. The water dropping down the inner surface covered by glazed ceramics is to flow into its own shadow, into its own projection. The effect of this object is based on the irreality of the scale. The torsos exhibited here are to show the realization of the idea of the monument, and they include the possibility of an irrational architectural space. RITA PAGONY and MIKLÓS OLASZ Artists working in ceramics are showing us the interrelations between mass and space. Being a couple in everyday life, their careers and professions are also mingled together. Having sampled the varied possibilities resulted by the struggle between our two oldest companions, earth and fire, they have found a willing tool to get them close to the present day problems of our three-dimensional world. One of them, Rita Pagony, Faenza gold medal winner, is approaching from the side of objects, while Miklós Olasz, an interior designer, is looking at things mainly from spacial point of view. One can feel, see and touch both the mass and form of such objects which are small enough to be taken in hand. At the same time space resulted by the pressure of limiting structures is admitting man into itself giving him an inside experience; buildings are usually serving man with their interior spaces. Though both these universes are three-dimensional, they are basically different from each other. The similarity, that is, at the same time, a difference has got a challenge somewhere which has been recognized and accepted by the couple. This challenge has always existed, either we did not pay attention to it or it was not up-to-date that certain objects have got an inside space, but this reality doesn’t exist for us, human beings are closed out - the only we can do is to envy the water which gets inside the jug. To accept this challenge means to get to the inside space of objects and to change the relation of man and objects - which sounds almost as absurd and bizarre an idea as a jug made of bricks. But - let me venture that remark - grotesque has been and absurd is a characteristic feature of our century (literature has been also influenced) and they both seem to be adequate forms for expressing the contradictions and storms of our souls similarly to this centrally-placed and astounding OBJECT - SPACE - TORSO. The path leading to the main piece is being lined with more or less milder variations which help us in getting closer to this peculiar world. GYÖRGY SZROGH

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