KÁLÓCZY Eszter / TRANKER Kata - Wandering troop of sensations

a

Eszter KÁLÓCZY /
Kata TRANKER:
Wandering troop of sensations

26 March 2025 – 25 April 2025

The title of the duo exhibition of Eszter KÁLÓCZY and Kata TRANKER was inspired by an image from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's book "The Visible and the Invisible": "[f]or the weight of the natural world is already a weight of the past. Each landscape of my life, because it is not a wandering troop of sensations or a system of ephemeral judgments but a segment of the durable flesh of the world [...]"[1]. Merleau-Ponty, as a precursor of the Somaesthetic movement, speaks of the body as the subject of perception and as the primary key to access to the world. The Somaesthetic approach to the word appears in the context of the exhibition: in KÁLÓCZY's paintings the body, the relationship between bodies, the spatial and temporal relationship and displacement of the figures of memory can be linked to the practice of experiencing the word aesthetics in terms of the body. The concept of the 'body as subject' reclaims the entitlement of the body as a living, experiencing, perceiving and knowing entity. "[B]ecause my eyes which see, my hands which touch, can also be seen and touched, because, therefore, in this sense they see and touch the visible, the tangible, from within, because our flesh lines and even envelops all the visible and tangible things with which nevertheless it is surrounded, the world and I are within one another [...]"[2].

The appearing actors, characters, spaces and their surroundings in the exhibition follow the visual logic of the dreams, creating a fictional image of an archaic past, while at the same time it bringing up universal questions such as the recurring forms and historical narrative of human relationships, the role of memories in the present, and the possibilities of individual and collective self-reflection. KÁLÓCZY's new series takes place in an imaginary architectural sphere, a kind of labyrinth. The artist was inspired by old representations of the brain where different brain areas were envisioned and depicted in a spatial structure. The different rooms and spaces are a repository of memories, thoughts and stimuli. We can look into these spaces through the paintings; this twisted act of self-reflection, of looking back at oneself, can be interpreted along the lines of Merleau-Ponty's thought: "this occurs because a sort of dehiscence opens my body in two, and because between my body looked at and my body looking, my body touched and my body touching, there is overlapping or encroachment [...]"[3]. TRANKER's reliefs recall a paradisiacal state which can be interpreted as a sort of reminiscence to the collective past, where the distinction between man and animal is ambivalent. The artist has explored the female aspect of the possibilities of stepping out from this state: the woman represents the archaic past, while the man embodies the way out in a parallel historical time. The two timelines merge and are seen in one scene. The artworks and the sculptures of TRANKER raise questions of the detachment from society, which has been a theme not only in our time, but also in many art movements.

Both artists are united by a common aesthetic coherence: colours, textures and a sensitive approach to formulation are characteristic of them, which together create a common, distinctive atmosphere. The two-dimensional depths of space in KÁLÓCZY's paintings are a transition from the two-dimensional depths of TRANKER's reliefs; their colours still belong to the world of paintings, but they move towards the three dimensional form. The sculptures are the final stage of this complete exit, and although they are visible in space, their colourlessness and texture, reminiscent of stone surfaces, suggest a kind of permanence and stiffness. The possibility of moving in and out of these three spatial stages is a dream-logic, like the changes of scale of the figures in the works within a picture. The exhibition presents moments of experiencing and perceiving time, space and existence, sometimes abstract and suggestive, but from another point of view sharp and definite.

Luca Petrányi

[1][2][3]: Maurice Merleau-Ponty: A látható és a láthatatlan. Budapest, L’Harmattan. 2020, page 141.

Eszter KÁLÓCZY (1994)

Eszter Kálóczy (born in 1994) focuses her work on self-exploration, family dynamics, and human relationships. Her paintings depict timeless emotions such as guilt, jealousy, and social loneliness. Her figures often appear ageless, with androgynous features that emphasize the universality of these feelings. Their facial expressions, body language, and physical tension reflect the duality of human connection and vulnerability. Kálóczy’s characters always carry a sense of dissonance; they seem unable to find harmony with one another and instead exist in symbiosis with their surroundings.

She creates her compositions intuitively, inspired by sudden flashes of insight and vivid dreams. Continuously experimenting with pastel color palettes, she contrasts detailed forms with more abstract elements to generate tension within the composition.

In 2024, she graduated with a degree in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.

Kata TRANKER (1989)

Kata Tranker (1989) draws inspiration from anthropological, primatological, zoological, and science fiction sources. Her work explores the essence of art, human behavior, and global events, inevitably prompting a reconsideration of humanity’s role—an issue that is becoming increasingly urgent in all our lives. She is deeply engaged with unraveling the logic of human evolution, as well as examining humanity’s gradual detachment from the natural world and the various narratives surrounding this process. In her art, theories of biological and cultural evolution, along with studies of the struggle for survival, serve both as tools for understanding the present and as a means of envisioning possible future scenarios.

She earned her degree in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2012. A multiple-time recipient of the Derkovits Gyula Scholarship, she has also been awarded the Smohay, Herczeg Klára, and Esterházy prizes in recent years.