Following a successful Attic Arts residency at the Romanian Cultural Institute in May 2008, artist Péter Szabó returns to London for his first UK solo show at Departure Community Arts Centre.
Have You Ever Bartered Before? is a text-based work which reflects poetically on the present context of living, aiming to propose a strategy for individual defense. The installation behaves like a puzzle, where some pieces are enough to build a fragment, without any constraint of finishing the whole image. It is an open structure with 23 'gates' you are invited to choose from and step in: 'Everything is important'; 'There is no difference'; 'Surviving is nice'; 'Have you EVER bartered before?' Reading and connecting the texts you will become a layer of the work.
An artist's talk with Romanian curator Attila Tordai will take place at 6.30 pm before the opening.
Péter Szabó (b. 1978, Tirgu-Mures, Romania) lives and works in Budapest. A graduate of the University of Fine Arts in Cluj and the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, Szabó is interested in the social and economic value of art.
Personal exhibitions: What I Mostly Hate About Art / Part One, Studio Gallery, Budapest (2007); Comparative, Bercsenyi Gallery, Budapest (2002); BFA exhibition, Protokoll Gallery, Cluj (2001).
Selected group exhibitions: 2007 - Points de vue, Romanian Cultural Institute, Paris; Unknown Scene, Ernst Museum, Budapest; friends, foes and collaborators, IG Bildende Kunst Gallery, Vienna; 2006 - 24 Minutes, Pfefferberg - Tuzraktér, Berlin-Budapest; Rezonancia, Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Interrupted Histories, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana.
Attila Tordai-S. (b.1970) is a curator and editor, based in Cluj, Romania. For the past seven years he has run Studio Protokoll which he co-founded in 1999. He has curated many exhibitions, among the most recent are: The state of endangered body, Trafo Gallery, Budapest, 2007; Extranjero ven a votar!/Stranger, come to vote!, Studio Protokoll, Cluj, 2006; and Why Children? - Focussing Iasi, Periferic Biennial 7, Iasi, 2006.
The event is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, London City Mission, Theo van Everdingen and Ursula Kohne.
When: 31 Oct - 28 Nov 2008; Artist's talk: Friday 31 Oct 6.30 pm; Opening: 8 - 10 pm Opening times: Tue-Fri 11 am - 9 pm, Sat 10 am - 5 pm. Closed on Sun and Mon. Where: Departure Community Arts Centre, 649 Commercial Road, London E14 7LW Admission: free.
