Zsófia Keresztes
"This technique [mosaic] has a strict logical method to it originally and gives a geometric web pattern to the skin of these wavering bodies. In this way it helps to visualise an extra dimension in the sculpture which is similar to an unsolvable code. It gives them the illusion of inaccessibility, but at the same time they can suck anything into themselves through their glossy surface."
photo: Dávid Biró
Zsófia Keresztes was born in 1985 in Budapest, where she lives and works. Zsófia Keresztes’ sculptures speculate how the real world extends into virtuality, following both a technological understanding as well as Marcel Proust’s comprehension of virtuality, memory as “real but not actual, ideal but not abstract”. Keresztes treats the virtual as something that is “as if” it were real, establishing game theories and What-If scenarios for how digital infestation becomes incarnated, how algorithms and digital avatars manifest themselves in the world and cannibalise sensation and perception.
Her sculptures and installations have recently been shown in, amongst others, at Keeping the Balance, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2020). 15th Lyon Biennale, Institut d’art contemporain de Villeurbanne, France; ZAT 2019, Montpellier-Sète; Liquid Bodies, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf (2019). Éntomos, duo exhibition with Anna Hulačová, GHMP, Prague; L’Esprit Souterrain, Domaine Pommery, Reims; Orient, kim?, Riga / BOZAR, Brussels / Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow; Sticky Fragility, Gianni Manhattan, Vienna; Facing Enemies, Melting Opposites, Karlin Studios, Prague (2018). Occupations of Uninhabited Space, Gianni Manhattan, Vienna; Abstract Hungary, Künstlerhaus- Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz; Afterbirth of a Dream, Meetfactory, Prague; Letting Go, Trafó Gallery, Budapest(2017).
chain, fiberglass, glass, metal shelf, mosaic, glue, grout, styrofoam, various dimension
courtesy of the Artist & Gianni Manhatten
photo: Dávid Biró
The body is a reoccurring trope in Keresztes’ practice. Made from glass mosaic, metal chains, Keresztes’ characters are sculptural manifestations of avatars created in digital spaces. She draws parallels between the physical body, limited by gravity, time and space, and the endless, ageless avatars created in the digital realm. She is fascinated by the mirror images of these two (opposing) identities, real and fictional, physical and digital, each existing simultaneously but bound to different forces of nature.