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Exhibition title: ERROR

KristofLab – Kristóf Szabó, solo exhibition

Venue: Godot Labor, 1036. Budapest, Fényes Adolf street.21.

opening and closing dates: 03/03/2021 to 05/09/09

Opening performance 2021. 03. 03. 20:00 on the facebook page of the event. Performance of the dancers of the Ziggurat Project with pieces from the joint collection of fashion designer Anna Sibitka and KristofLab. Dancers: Emese Kovács, Tímea Laza, Krisztián Szilágyi.

Curator: Luca Cserhalmi

Erros is Kristóf Szabó, ie KristofLab's large-scale solo exhibition on the four floors of Godot Labor. The exhibition reflects on the anomalies, mistakes and excesses of the urban environment and modern society, such as the present world order. In KristofLab’s paintings, the loneliness of empty buildings is followed by an urban existence that is both deserted and safe. In his works, the main role is given to buildings that we go by unnoticed every day, yet they have a special aesthetic of the everyday life. They become invisible and dissolve in the fabric of the city in the same way that the crowd moving between them becomes faceless and monotonous. However, unnatural colors and deliberate image defects remove the viewer from the gloomier reality: from here, with all the absurdity of urban space, it seems like a huge playground. According to KristofLab's art, there is a kind of distortion in our present society, so as an explanation, nature breaks into the products of civilization in his works, which accompanied him to live as a phantom in places where he was actually excluded by humanity. And the bill of broken balance and declining values is given in the end to the globalized society that does not offer reassuring promises for the past, present or the future. The exhibition presents the latest installations, paintings, photographs and international projects of the artist’s creative period.

Kristóf Szabó has been using the artist name KristofLab since 2016, referring to his creative method combining different branches of art, in which his fine arts and media art activities are the most significant. In addition to his painting program, he also creates graphic, intermedia and photographic works, where he also creates the visual and audio elements of the installations and videos. He often collaboratates with other artists, which projects, in addition to interdisciplinarity, are most driven by knowledge sharing and creative workshops. Since 2015, he has been a member of  Ziggurat Project, experimenting with multi-art collaborations, with which he regularly works in Hungary and abroad, mainly in the implementation of site-specific, experimental performances. In addition to constant experimentation, KristofLab extensively researches how boundaries between the branches of art and different genres can be eradicated within a creative oeuvre.

For KristofLab, the analytical approach does not end with the research of topics concerning social phenomena, but also plays an important role in the specific creative process, through the reinterpretation of his own works. His works are based on his photographs and videos, which he captures while wandering the cities and mapping nature. The “raw materials” created in this way function as a kind of memory bank, he transforms, groups them from time to time, and finally compresses them into a specific, sometimes seemingly utopian artistic concept. He superimposes materials from the observation of the environment in the visual world of his works, thus changing the original meaning of the starting point and bringing into dialogue contents that are far apart from each other at first glance, such as nature, the big city and virtuality. Digital image defects, reflections, lights, and noises superimposed on two- and three-dimensional works bring into play the aesthetic categories associated with distortion and error.

His works mainly revolve around three defining themes, the cornerstone of which is man: social identity and the living environment, and through them the current stage of civilization. The defining basis of the questions grouped around these concepts is social sensitivity, active thinking about the problems and phenomena generated by our present lives. His works therefore cover topics such as alienation, self-image distortion, or ecological problems.

KristofLab's work is a testament to coherent construction. The themes of his series build on each other, they are closely connected, and the expression of his thoughts thus expands and refines with newer works and ensembles of works of art. Experimenting with different branches of art is important for him also to explore the subject, as each medium is able to express new layers, so the viewer can finally get a comprehensive picture of the subject. He thinks in site-specific solutions, so he transforms the venue of the exhibition or the performance into a specific world where the artefacts can merge.