HUNGARIAN MUSEUM OF APPLIED ART, BUDAPEST (HU)
The word “vari” is short for “variation”, while “.art” is a form of display taken from the net (computer technology). The two together mean the possibility of interactivity within art.
Ever since there have been fine arts, nearly all artists have made variations for themselves of the subjects they were involved in, but in most cases only the final result is shown to the public. Some artists also present their intermediate or favoured versions, while others don’t finish working on the same subject for decades. Why can’t the creative process be left open? That is, instead of completing it, allowing others the opportunity of becoming part of the creative process by having their own emotions, moods and environment reflected. Let us create objects that involve mobility in their structure, appearance and operation, i.e. the attribute that their form can be changed, arranged in many ways and so they flexibly adapt themselves to their environment, to those that deal with them, while maintaining their own character. I find that this openness or, to use a slightly hackneyed word, interactivity is necessary and timely, and seems to contradict the “Here, take it, I’ve laid it for you, admire my golden egg!” type of approach. If this train of thought were just the insolent proclamation of a new “ism”, this would really be apt. I believe that besides the already existing and continuously appearing traditional artistic values something else is needed. I am not talking about announcing a preferential claim, as isolated attempts and simplified engineering solutions (construction set principle) have been known for a long time. Such are Vasarely’s mosaic jigsaw puzzles, Rubik’s snake and cube, the finite element method in science or the constructional method of Frank O. Gehry’s exuberant surfaces in architecture. What I am trying to do is simply to define or start a movement under the title vari.art which deals with this timely, unresolved problem more consciously. Besides my natural inclination, this is why I am trying to simplify my thoughts in this field endlessly, often through mathematical abstractions, in the hope that the public will find them easier to understand. It may be a reassuring sign that I myself arrived here by the path of meditative games. I hope that many others, more and more people will experience the necessity of mobility and interactivity.
In other arts, such as music, these efforts are asserted much more intensely. Just think of improvisations or works demanding creativity from musicians because only the time individual instruments sound for, their mood and variations are prescribed (for example Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, etc.). The same could be done in the fine arts. The most attractive, most exciting postures of my vari.art works are drawn forth by my artist friends. However, when released to the public the question is not whether they are good, attractive or modern but rather that they are personal, related and not embedded in concrete! They are not about condescension or elevation, but about a common, incomplete result. They intend to strengthen the common part of human virtues created by hopes, possibilities and humbleness. For me it is a new, exciting territory, a natural demand – come and explore with me!
