“Col Tempo” – The W. Project
Péter Forgács’s installation of media art
53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice, Hungarian Pavilion
Boasting a century-old history, the Venice Biennale is probably the most important visual art festival in the world, a cultural event whose traditions are among the noblest and whose spirit is one of the most progressive in Europe. The Giardini Park is home to the displays of various nations, and each pavilion features the best contemporary art from the given country. This year the Hungarian display is made especially memorable by the 100th anniversary of the beautiful Art Nouveau pavilion, the design of Géza Maróti.
The professional jury that assessed all competition entries chose “Col Tempo” – The W. Project, a work by media artist Péter Forgács and curator András Rényi to represent Hungary at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. The unusual media art installation relies on an archive of films and photographs, originally serving Nazi anthropology during the Second World War, and now kept in the Museum of Natural History, Vienna. By transposing the images into a high-tech, 21st century installation, the artist reinterprets the historic material in a contemporary context. Possessing a complex structure and dramatic power, the work forces the viewer to confront serious moral issues, and offers the poignant experience of seeing historical memory and contemporary reactions at work.
With films and video works that treat on historical memory and employ an original approach and artistic consistency, Péter Forgács has achieved an international renown in the past twenty years that can be compared only with that of György Ligeti, Péter Esterházy or Péter Nádas. His work has been acknowledged with countless Hungarian and international awards: most recently the Dutch Queen decorated him with what is perhaps the most prestigious European acknowledgement of cultural activity, the Erasmus Prize.
Curator: Rényi András
National comissioner: Dr. Petrányi Zsolt
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