Curated by Gvantsa Jishkariani and Ellene Kapanadze
At The Why Not Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
June 03 — 21, 2022
Photography by Sandro Sulaberidze
Untitled
Will you stick with me if I leave, I wonder? If I can’t find my place, I’ll do it with you? If I can’t fill my goblet, will you fill it with your blood? Will we still have a place under the trees, will there be more shade where the secret lurks? Here I am, Here I stand, I glance outwards, I glance inwards, I grip a bunch and fall under the ground.
— Ádám Horváth
The Why Not Gallery is glad to present Adam Horvath solo show ‘Kingdom of Orphans’.
The artist visually divides the exhibition space into two parts and presents supposed remnants of a fictional medieval civilisation. The inhabitants have disappeared and left behind their precious material values.
They have disappeared without us knowing any reason for that.
‘The show’s intent is to examine how nature and civilization interact, and what happens when suddenly, one or the other disappears from the picture.
To what extent do flora-fauna return to pre-human conditions, or does it return at all? Would humans be able to create a new path for the next generation instead of devouring natural resources? Is the relationship between man and nature so strong that an unfilled space would emerge after one disappears?
I have no intention of answering the above questions, there is no guidance, an advanced scenario for a disaster that has already occurred. I depict theatrical scenes with a slight distance, while also considering the possibilities of personal rehabilitation’- writes Adam Horvath.
The exhibition brings together Horvath’s body of work where mystical and magical intertwine and produce excellently executed complex imagery. The inspiration for Horvath’s oeuvre is as complex and multifaceted as the works themselves are. Horvath brought up in rural Hungary, is deeply inspired by the ancient archeological sites that come back as flashbacks from his childhood. That is combined with his deep fascination with nature, to the point that he once considered to become a botanist; flora indeed often serves as the first point of departure for his artworks. Science fiction, as well as deep interconnectedness with his generation’s collective unconscious, manifest in recurring musings on the relationship between humans and nature, feelings of vulnerability and longing, trauma and healing. Horvath converts these experiences into his personal mythology and offers little poetic clues for desciphering.
In the post-pandemic world shocked by the sudden and shocking changes, the show cannot help but question what would we as a society leave behind had we gone extint?!