General Copy
This piece, in effect, is a large-size print tarp with quick dry acrylic paint. It is based on our piece The Meeting Room prepared for the exhibition No One Belongs Here More Than You organized in March 2011 at the Kunsthalle/Műcsarnok, Budapest. The print is made from a larger composition that depicts two house painters at work among pieces of furniture covered. For us, this serendipitous composition represents change and transformation. The image originally appeared on the packaging of the tarp as an illustration; then, as a result of our reflection, this material became the carrier of the image as well. Being a print, this image is reversed compared to the wall carving in the transept of the Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle.
The title also complies with our idea. Copy General is a copy service chain spread over Budapest; our copy of the image can be considered the copy of a copy (the original composition/found figure/wall-carving/print).
Currently, General Copy is showcased at the annual exhibition of Studio of Young Artists’ Association (FKSE) in the Hungarian National Gallery. This exhibition is especially noteworthy in our context of work’s secondary phase (the wall-carving) since it holds quite severe political and, as such, cultural political implications. The concept, as well as the pieces exhibited at No One Belongs Here More Than You were approved by the previous general director of the Kunsthalle/Műcsarnok Zsolt Petrányi; however, the exhibition itself was organized during the management of the new director, Gábor Gulyás. He gave full permission to the exhibition and, in fact, had no objection towards its actual realization at all. Therefore, in effect, the exhibition was realized in a vacuum with a budget much smaller than any other exhibition at this venue.
A few months later, General Copy debuted at the exhibition Speaks for Itself in the Hungarian National Gallery (on view till September 2011). The exhibition, on view till September 2011, is curated by Zsolt Petrányi as an independent curator, while soon he is going to be a senior research fellow at the Gallery’s contemporary art department.
