SPRLQDT is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition

arcadia
October 7 –  November 13, 2016
Opening: Friday, October 7, 7pm – 9pm

[artists] Tamás Komoróczky, Agnieszka Polska, Ádám Ulbert
[curator]  Áron Fenyvesi

The exhibition is built around videos of Tamás Komoróczky (1963), Agnieszka Polska (1985) and Ádám Ulbert (1984), which all address from a certain perspective the mythical aspects of contemporary art. The Arcadia exhibition confronts us with the image of nature and its cultural symbols as myths. In the eternal face of the mythos all other references shy away, even referentiality in general turns into dust.

In the timeless jungle of instincts and sensuality the only possible compass for the exhibition is poetry. When every reference abandons us, only the eternal minimalism of words can create a holistic connection to the totality of metaphysics. Poetry is the tool of Pan of Marfa who is playing with Ovid among the universalised ruins of the modernity in Ádám Ulbert’s video Nostalgia.  Poetry is the airbrush network of the moodboard of Tamás Komoróczky’s video. Poetry is also how the resonation of the rotor is casting a shadow on the jungle of taxonomy in Komoróczky’s Ancient: anal tyranny. Poetry is the conclusion of the mythical excursion of Agnieszka Polska in her video The Talking Mountain, which leads us to the infinite abyss of written words, through a whirling trash narrative accompanied by distorted Shadows guitars in the neverland of antropomorphisation.

Only the power of words which don’t rust, have the power to face eternity. This timeless aspect of the exhibited works makes us viewers face something raw, something unprecedented, something anarcho-classical, where representation fails again and the constellations of visual poetry are able to rule the senses.

Tamás Komoróczky (b.1963, Békéscsaba) lives and works in Berlin and Budapest. He is a founding member of the újlak Group and TüzoltÓ 72. Exhibition Place, and co-founder of U.F.F. Gallery. The recipient of several scholarships and residencies, his projects have been presented at C3 (Center for Culture and Communication) in Budapest and as part of numerous group exhibitions at the 4th Oodaaq festival in Rennes, Crosstalk 7 video art festival in Budapest, Ludwig Museum, New Budapest Gallery, OFF-Biennale Budapest, Deák Erika Galéria, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, and RAM Gallery in Rotterdam. His most recent solo exhibitions include Ghost Trap, Neon Gallery, Budapest, 2012; Everything eats, everything is eaten, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, 2012; Milksoup as a Forced Existentialist Metaphor, Higgs Field Gallery, Budapest, 2014; The Blood is Red / The Patterns of Blood, Neon Gallery, Budapest, 2015; and Logos, Tekhnos, Textos, Videos, Audios, Lajos, Budapest Gallery, Budapest, 2016.

Agnieszka Polska (b.1985, Lublin) lives and works in Kraków and Berlin. An MA graduate of the University of the Arts in Berlin (2009), in the class of Hito Steyerl, Polska’s main media are animation, video and photography. Her work was included in numerous screening programs and presented at relevant art fairs across Europe. A recipient of the Grand Prix Geppert Award (2011) and the Polish Film Award by the Polish Film Institute and Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, her work was presented in group exhibitions at important venues such as Zacheta, Palais de Tokyo, la Biennale di Venezia, 19th Biennale of Sydney, Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Copenhagen International Film Festival, Museum Wiesbaden, MNAC Bucharest, and the 11th Gwangju Biennale. Among solo presentations at Belvedere in Vienna, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, or Salzburger Kunstverein, her most recent solo exhibitions include The Moving Finger: A Performative Lecture with Agnieszka Polska, MoMA, New York (2015) and Screens Series: Agnieszka Polska, New Museum, New York (2016).

Adam Ulbert (b. 1984, Budapest) currently lives and works in Amsterdam. An MA graduate of the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam (2014) and ESSL Art Award nominee (2011), he was recently awarded a residency at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. His practice encompasses video art, installation art, sculpting and painting. His work was recently presented as part of group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Club Electroputere (Craiova), the Crosstalk Video Art Festival (Budapest), Art Plus Text Gallery (Budapest), De Appel Arts Centre (Amsterdam), the Hungarian National Museum (Budapest) and Trafó Gallery (Budapest). His most recent solo exhibitions include Dialogical Co-dissolution, Trapéz Gallery, Budapest, 2013; The Peeping Metals Experience, The Lombard Method, Birmingham, UK, 2013; Paleotempestological Inference, Zönotéka, Berlin, 2014; and Spiritus Bestiae Faber, Trapéz Gallery, Budapest, 2014.

Áron Fenyvesi (b. 1983, Novi Sad) is a Budapest based curator and art writer. Since 2011 he is the curator of Trafó Gallery, Budapest. Fenyvesi curated various exhibitions in Hungary and abroad focusing on the local, regional and international emerging art scene – his recent shows were held at Trafó Gallery, Budapest; Galeria Plan B, Berlin; Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Gallery, Regensburg; Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU), Zagreb and Club Electroputere, Craiova. In 2009 he was nominated for the Lorenzo Bonaldi EnterPrize hosted by GAMeC, Bergamo. His essays were published in ArtReview and in Roundtable, e-journal of the Gwangju Biennale 2012.