Joseph
Nechvatal
viral
castratO
September
8th Ð October 4th 2015
Presented by
Budapest Art Factory
H-1138 Budapest, V‡ci
œt 152-156
viral castratO
Viruses in Hungary
by DŽlia VŽkony
The exhibition viral castratO by American artist Joseph Nechvatal, hosted by
Budapest Art Factory (on view from Sept. 8- Oct. 4) is taking place in
Budapest, Hungary in times highly sensitive for symptoms viruses of any kind
can possibly cause. NechvatalÕs installation, a digital work in which computer
viruses consume digital paintings has a universal reference to change, chance,
disturbance of order and the uncanny.
Yet, the piece can also be understood within the light
of the current socio-political framework in which thousands of migrants, mostly
from Syria arrive to Hungary weekly. They intend to cross the country and head
to Germany and other northern countries in hope for a better future. For having
any future at all, to be precise.
In spite of the hardships these people go through to
arrive to Europe alive, by many they are seen as an infection on the body of
the continent. Nonetheless, they are at our borders and no matter how many
fences are erected, they are coming in and wanting to move on. Although the EU
allocates considerable sums for dealing with the current migration crisis,
there is not a consensual decision about what to do with the crowds arriving.
Hungary is reluctant to claim any responsibility, but other EU countries also
keep on changing their attitude. Although Europe is obviously not ready for
accepting so many people looking for a new life, it is striking to see that
migrants are looked upon as viruses that are here to invade the mother-body.
Instead of thinking of them as change that could result in new, refreshing
heterotopias, in new bodies that might be the alteration and reshaping of the
old, anachronistic order, these people are seen as infectious disease, here to
pollute and destroy. Surely if mother-body Europe is not learning to ÔmutateÕ
and adjust to this change, it shall die a painful death while resisting.
viral castratO
Introduced by Colleen
Bell, Ambassador of the United States to Hungary
A live interview was
conducted at the opening by art historian DŽlia VŽkony
Joseph Nechvatal is a
post-conceptual artist and art theoretician who employs digital means to
produce paintings and animations. The centrality of his oeuvre acknowledges
computer generated viruses as a creative stratagem. To address the merging of
the biological and virtual, he coined the term viractual with which he
extensively experiments through his work. In his paintings, the computer virus
surfaces as the active agent which manipulates and corrupts the information
stored in the image (the host) decreasing its integrity. On the other hand, the
workings of these viral entities redefine the structure of the host,
introducing novelties into the image system. Therefore their activity can be
viewed as a constructive, creative process.
viral castratO
viral
castratO
viral
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