Art Encounters 2017 Exhibitions:
I work, therefore Iʼm not

István Csákány (b. 1978) creates large-scale sculptural objects and installations. He is interested in modernity’s endgames, in monumentality, collective memory, and in labor, both industrial and that of the artist. Often he creates complex, uncanny scenarios, dioramas, in which found objects and his own works acquire new identities in chilling visions of the present. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Art in Budapest.

Selected exhibitions: Cassini Cruise IV, Vrijthof 21, Maastricht (2016); Adam, Eve and the Devil, Marres – House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht (2015); Invisible Violence, ARTIUM Basque Museum – Centre of Contemporary Art in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (2014); The Other Half of the Sky, Museum of Contemporary Art – Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2012); Sok sikert! (Good luck!), Budapest Galéria Kiállítóháza, Budapest (2010, solo, with Beatrix Szörényi); Bernsteinzimmer, make up gallery – Kasárne Kulturpark, Kosice (2010, solo); It was an experience to be here!, open studio – Meetfactory, Prague (2009, solo); The mechanics of the canvas, Ernst Museum, Budapest (2008); Province models, Stanica Gallery, Zilina-Zariecie (2008, solo).
His works have been shown at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016, the OFF-Biennale Budapest (2015), the LIAF 2013 Lofoten Art Festival (2013), at dOCUMENTA 13 (Kassel, 2012), and at the Prague Biennale (2007).

Characterized by a conceptual approach, but also an exceptional craftsmanship, István Csákány’s sculptures and installations deal with the ideological background of everyday environments, sometimes abandoned or in a state of in-betweenness. Sudden gust of motivation is a realistic sculpture that captures the artist in a strange posture the moment a chair collapses under his body. Like a metaphor of a mental lapse, this work marks the fragility of an artist losing control for a second and trying to readjust. 

Images:

1. István Csákány, Portrait

2. István Csákány, Concrete Wreath (2013), photo credits: Miklós Sulyok