Gábor Koós by Chimera-Project

KOÓS GÁBOR 2013–15

Chimera-Project Gallery Klauzál tér 5. H-1072 Budapest Patrick Urwyler Director & Owner +36 30 768 29 47 patrick@chimera-project.com www.chimera-project.com

CONTENT Introduction

Article

Works

Curriculum Vitae

Chimera-Project 34

Souvenir I. (Goods lift), 2014 (see page 20)

INTRODUCTION

Gábor Koós Ab out t he ar t ist

Gábor Koós finished the University of Fine Art in Budapest in 2012. His latest serie “Budapest Diary” has won the “Graphic of the Year” prize, which is the most renowned Hungarian art prize for graphic works. Gábor Koós’s work was also awarded in 2014 with the prize of XXVI. Graphic Triennial of Miskolc and with the Derkovits Gyula Fine Art Award. Gábor Koós had solo shows in Győr City Museum (H), Fülek City Museum (SK), SODA Gallery (SK) and his works were included in several curated group exhibitions. Now he prepares a solo show for the Meetfactory, Kostka Gallery (CZ) and for a group show for Kunsthalle, Budapest. As he deals with the topic of memories, into his ongoing series he integrates his residency works (PROGR, Bern (CH); Banská St a Nica (SK); in 2015 Meetfactory (CZ); Stuttgart). Gábor Koós ’s work is in line with diary writing: he preserves objects, places and traces of persons with personal relevance. For capturing the features of the object and his emotions related to it, he uses two techniques: direct printing by using frottage technique and woodcut. Both are deeply rooted in the tradition of printmaking, but at the same time Koós’s approach completely challenges this tradition: to address the tension of copy and original, which is inherent in any printmaking technique, Koós exhibits the matrix and the print emancipated next to each other. Since the artists consequently creates only one print from each matrix, the two unique but highly connected works carry the complex of problems of copy and original to ad absurdum.This format reflects also the nature of memories, where the object of the memory and the memory itself are both original entities.

A RTICLE

B U D A P E S T D IA RY by Z s olt M és z á ro s

A r t H i s t o r i a n , L i t e r a r y Sch o la r a t th e L o r á n d Eö tvö s Uni versi ty, Budapest

Photographing means to own the photographed object – writes Susan Sontag in her influential work, On Photography. Koós works are much alike, they take an element into possession, either a door, a

bus station or a courtyard of a house. These occupations serve not for possession itself but to rescue, to withdraw each element from the time passing.

Collecting photographs means collecting worlds – we can again learn from Sontag. In the works of Gábor Koós these two practices are combined and completed with a third one: the diary writing, which means reviewing, selecting and recording impressions. The attitude of the young artist is

similar to a photographer; however Koós is a true printmaker, who is practicing one of the oldest

reproduction techniques, the woodcut. He carves the composition into the wood matrix, paints and

after prints it. However in his case the matrix and the resulting print are equally ranked. They build a pair, that shows the process of documenting, remembering and preserving.

In Koós’s Budapest Diary series the scenery is Budapest, the new home of the graduated artist.

Koós’s intention with his work is twofold: on the one hand coping with his actual life situation, on the other hand coping with the spatial experience bound to this. In his compositions we can observe a

rich play with the surface, which gives a strong atmosphere to the panorama of this courtyards and

streets. The pictorial world of the works is very dense, our eyes dwell on them and watch them with

pleasure, for example by analysing the grain of the wood, which embodies the moulder plaster of the house walls.

It is a very sympathetic artistic attitude to start from a subjective experience, which becomes very personal, but at the same time it is loaded with contents, which are perceivable also for others.

We can see his frottages about the first signposts of a responsible adulthood, the gas- and water meter; wall details of the Kunsthalle, where Koós was exhibiting his first Derkovits fine art award winning artworks; or his entrance door. This elements are synthesized in the frameworks and

architecture of the metropol. His imposant sized street panorama literally sucks in the observer, and transmits the experience and feelings of being small, being lost.

The works also remind us on the 19th century photographs - for example the famous Budapest

photographs of György Klösz - which were documenting the developing metropole. No people can be seen in the shadows of this monumental buildings. The people were there, but because of the hours long exposure time the camera was not able to record their movements. However their presence flutters on the works, even though invisible. The same happens on the works of Gábor Koós.

We come and go around in the city, wait for the traffic light or just find shelter and wait until it rains.

This are dead times, when we actually don’t do anything, we just stand and look into the nothing. In

this times the inner exposure time gets longer, the autos and bypassers around us disappear. Our look follows the straight roads running into the infinite or wanders on the facades, surfing on the surfaces, over the gips decorations and reaches at the end, through the rooftops, the sky. Then the exposure time gets shorter again, the traffic goes on, the tram grabs and the street washes us away. But something from that minute stays with us, something that feels home.

W ORKS / BUDAPES T DIA RY

B U D A P E S T D IA RY 2013/ 14

In the Budapest Diary serie Koós preserves and

The self chosen restriction (to make only one

ally – the imprints of his own, autonomous life.

contrasts the nature of printmaking and at the

documents his surroundings by making – liter-

The serie Budapest Diary won «The Graphic of the Year» prize in 2014, the prize of the XXVI. Miskolc Graphic Triennial and the Derkovits

print from a matrix) is also a statement, which

same time mirrors the unique nature of the artist’s valuable memories.

Fine Art Award.

With the directness of the frottage print tech-

With the technique of woodcut Koós docu-

the artist captures the ambivalence of feelings,

ments his everyday environment: the street

where he lives, the courtyard of his house and the metrocar, which takes him to his studio.

He places the print and the matrix together on opposing walls and creates an installation, a

real space experience. Showing the print and its matrix together reflects Koós approach

towards printmaking. Although woodcut is a reproductive technique, he strictly produces unique prints: that’s why the matrix and the

print form the artwork as a unity. To treat matrix and print both as unique and original objects,

reflects the complex of problems of copy and original, which is inherent in any printmaking process.

nique also used in the Budapest Diary series, which belong to the process of building an independent existence.

Koós frottage-printed objects (like his water and gas-meter) become a symbol for paying

bills, or the wall of the Hungarian Kunsthalle, where he exhibited his first award-winning artwork, becomes a memory of his first acknowledgement in art.

Budapest Diary VI. (Entrance Door), 2013 Lino ink on paper & door 85Ă&#x2014;200 cm /each

W ORKS / BUDAPES T DIA RY

Budapest Diary IX. (Artist’s Water Meter), 2013 Ink on paper (Frottage) 60×35 cm

Budapest Diary VII. (Wall of Kunsthalle Budapest), 2013 Ink on paper (Frottage) 60Ă&#x2014;35 cm

W ORKS / BUDAPES T DIA RY

Budapest Diary IV. (Metro), 2013 Kunsthalle Budapest Installation View

W ORKS / BUDAPES T DIA RY

Budapest Diary IV. (Metro), 2013 Lino ink on paper 300Ă&#x2014;300 cm

Budapest Diary IV. (Metro), 2013 Wood Matrix 300Ă&#x2014;300 cm

W ORKS / BUDAPES T DIA RY

Budapest Diary I. (Street View), 2013 Lino ink on paper 300x150 cm

Budapest Diary I. (Street View), 2013 Wood Matrix 300x150 cm

W ORKS

Budapest Diary - Solo Exhibition, 2014 SODA Gallery, Bratislava Installation View

W ORKS / SOUVE NI R

SOUVENIR 2014/15

In his recent work, the Souvenir series Koós

is experimenting with printmaking in 3D and prints for the first time a whole space. In his

first 3D print installation he tries to capture and recreate the goods lift of his art studio in life-

size, as a kind of a Souvenir, he wants to take

with him by leaving his studio. The huge goods lift took an important role in the artist’s life in

transporting his large scale works and installations. As a farewell from his studio, Koós also printed his arm-chair which was the place of his inventions.

In the forthcoming parts of the Souvenir series the artist is coping with his past and his

mourning related to recent loss of family

members: he prints objects from his childhood house, like the balcony fence, made by his

grandfather or the saw of his uncle, who introduced the artist into working with wood. The works are all protests against forgetting.

Souvenir I. (Goods lift), 2014 Lino ink on paper, metal frame, sound 280x185x220 cm

WORKS

Souvenir I. (Goods lift), 2014 (Inside view, detail) Lino ink on paper, metal frame, sound 280x185x220 cm

W ORKS / SOUVE NI R

Souvenir II. (Arm-Chair), 2014 Lino ink on paper, wooden frame 60x70x85 cm

Souvenir III. (Work bench), 2015 Lino ink on paper, wooden frame 80 x 100 x 90 m

W ORKS / SOUVE NI R

Souvenir IV. (Saw), 2015 Lino ink on paper, wooden frame 145x65x225 cm

WORKS / HOL OCA US T M EM OR I A L

TRAUMA - SPACE - THERAPY Holoc aus t M em o ri a l 2 0 1 5

Gábor Koós was invited by the City of Bu-

site. In these works of art, the rediscovery of

occasion of the anniversary of the 2 world war

together with the present is expressed through

dapest to create a site specific work on the nd

Jewish ghetto in Pest. His artwork consisted of a large scale frottage from clothes symbolizing human bodies and reflecting the fact that the

square where the exhibition takes place was a former cemetery, where jews were buried.

layers of both old times and the recent past

the dialectics of oblivion and exploration, while they also tell their audience about the ghetto,

the Holocaust, the past, the present and – most of all – the future of Klauzál Square.

Koós work is a statement against forgetting –

placed on the floor at the exit of the exhibition space, people need to walk over the work (on

a white area, not over the printed bodies itself) and therefore are directly confronted with the traumatic past of the square.

Official statement of István Bársony (curator): In the exhibition entitled TRAUMA – SPACE –

THERAPY the reflections of contemporary art-

ists are linked to the contingencies of personal memories, artistic transcriptions and subjec-

tive reinterpretations. The artists are members of the “third generation” after the Holocaust.

What they share is that they all react to Klauzál

Square in an indirect way, with their own artistic instruments, styles and methods. For the artists, this urban landscape is something more than and different from a “simple” historical

Trauma - Space - Therapy (Outside view) Open Air Exhibition at Klauzál tér, Budapest Curated by István Bársony

(Photo: MTI, Illyés-Tibor)

Trauma - Space - Therapy (Inside views) Open Air Exhibition at Klauzál tér, Budapest Curated by István Bársony

C URRICULUM VITA E

G Á B O R K OÓS * 1986, Luc enec , S l o v a k i a | l i v e s a n d w o rks i n B udapest, H ungary

STUDIES 2007–2012 2010

Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest Glasgow School of Art (GSA), Glasgow, UK

AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, GRANTS 2015 2014 2013 2012 2010 2009

Meetfactory Residency, Prague, CZ (upcoming, Apr-May 2015) Salzburg, Budapest Gallery Residency, DE (upcoming, Aug 2015) Derkovits Gyula Fine Art Prize, Hungarian Fine Art Association (MANK), Budapest, HU Graphic of The Year Prize, HU Prize of XXVI. Graphic Triennale of Miskolc, HU Banská St a Nica, Printmaking Workshop Residency, Banská Štiavnica, SK Residency.ch, Residency in PROGR, Berne, CH Derkovits Gyula Fine Art Prize, Hungarian Fine Art Association (MANK), Budapest, HU Derkovits Gyula Fine Art Prize, Hungarian Fine Art Association (MANK), Budapest, HU Barcsay Prize, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU Erasmus Scholarship, Glasgow School of Arts (GSA), Glasgow, UK “Flower Petals Bird Wings” 1st Prize Barcsay Prize, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU Székely Bertalan Award, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION) 2015 2014 2013 2010 2009

KOSTKA Gallery, Meetfactory, Prague, CZ (upcoming, 2015 May) 2014 Budapest Diary, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK Budapest Diary, Győr City Museum, Napóleon House, Győr, HU Heroes and Mares, CD-Fű Kultúrpince, Budapest, HU Man + Woman, Fülek City Museum, Filakovo, SK

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION) 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008

Derkovits Gyula Fine Art Prize, Kunsthalle, Budapest, HU Trauma – Space – Therapy, Memory of the ghetto in Pest, Klauzál Square, Budapest, HU 1/1/3 “Selfish”, Latarka Gallery, Budapest, Hungary 500+1 Fete of the European Printmaking, Műterem Gallery, Debrecen, HU Artplacc, Contemporary Art Festival, Tihany, HU (with Chimera-Project) XXVI. Graphic Triennale of Miskolc, Hungary The Future Is Today!, Institute of Contemporary Art, Dunaújváros, HU 1/1/2, FUGA, Budapest Center of Architecture, Budapest, HU Derkovits Gyula Fine Art Prize, Kunsthalle, Budapest, HU Enter/ing – New members of the Studio of Young Artists Association, Studio Gallery, Budapest, 1/1, ART IX XI Gallery, Budapest, HU Extension, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest, HU 2nd International Biennal of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Esterházy Castle, Győr, HU Fingerprints, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest, HU Derkovits Now – Exhibition of the Derkovits Prize winners, Kunsthalle, Budapest, HU Friss 2012, Empathy/Manipulation, Kogart Gallery, Budapest, HU Best of Diploma 2012, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU Graphic Open 2012, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU World Day of Architecture, Association of Hungarian Architects, Budapest, HU Barcsay Prize, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU Barcsay Prize Winners, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU Magyarok – Wengry, Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Art in Krakow, PL XXV. Miskolc Graphic Triennal, Miskolc Gallery, Miskolc, HU 1st International Biennal of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Győr, HU Before Degree, Nyíregyháza, HU 100+3, Zalaegerszeg, HU 42th International Art Colony Győr, HU 1st Szekler Graphic Biennal, Saint George, RO Water and Life, Baja, HU Barcsay Prize Winners, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU Flower Petals Bird Wings, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU +- 100 year, Mission Art Gallery, Budapest, HU Small Graphic Forms, Újpest Gallery, Budapest, HU

C URRICULUM VITA E

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS Hermann Otto Museum, Miskolc, HU Földes Collection, HU MEMBERSHIPS 2014-

Studio of Young Artists’ Association, Budapest, HU

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS Zsolt Mészáros, Budapest Diary, Koós Gábor kiállítása. Emese Révész, XXVI. Miskolci Grafikai Triennálé. Élet és Irodalom, 2014/ Aug Kriszta Dékei, Medveállatka és integető cica. Magyar Narancs 2014/ 17. p. 48-49. Ernő P. Szabó, Üdvözlet a Dolomitokból. Új Művészet 2014/ June p.23. Lajos Lóska, Generációváltás Miskolcon. Új Művészet 2014/ June p.22-25. Luca Szűcs, Derkovits - Most. Balkon 2013/ Apr. p.18-19. Boglárka Debreceni, Feldolgozás alatt. Új Művészet 2012/ 9. p.17-27.

GALL ERY

C H I M E R A - P R OJ E C T Ab out Us

The Chimera-Project is a program gallery, established in 2013 in Budapest. Our gallery program is built on curated, thematic exhibitions to generate a meaningful discourse in contemporary art around relevant artistic and social topics. Through its founders, Chimera-Project has a strong international orientation: Patrick Urwyler is a Swiss art historian and curator and Bogi Mittich is a Hungarian sociologist. We worked in several art institutions in Berlin (Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien), Budapest (Traf贸, Videospace, Studio Gallery for Young Artists Association) and Berne (University of the Arts, Department of Culture, Biennale Berne). Based on our background our goal is to support international exchange. Our annual program consists of two interrelated sections of exhibitions: one section we realize in our own gallery space, showing local and international positions and the other abroad through various projects. We built up an international exchange program, based on bilateral exhibition series, called Inter Art. We established an international award, the Chimera Art Award and this year we launch our international artist and curator residency program.

Patrick Urwyler

Bogi Mittich

Director & Owner

Gallery Manager

+36 30 768 29 47

+36 30 682 32 79

patrick@chimera-project.com

bogi@chimera-project.com

www.chimera-project.com