BENCE MAGYARLAKI
I. My starting point in the process of making sculpture is the idea of absence.
II. To reinstitute absences into concievable things, I start by considering the memory of the body as the site for production
III. Body-remembering comes with body-forgetting once we take into account that past experienced is not identical to past remembered. This is the difference that separates presence from absence, action from action remembered, gesture from gesture performed. To sculpt a shape of non-absence is to forget.
IV. The object trembles. It 'holds itself apart from absence and apart from presence, and nonetheless causes both presence and absence to come forth through the necessity of forgetting' (Blanchot).
V. The object is the performer. Forgetting is the event.
The outer and inner surfaces of the body are considered the limit of immediate experience: the barrier which holds together and separates, similar to a mold. The surface of matter will be inscribed at the site of conflict between the softness of liquids and the hardness of shells.
I start with a simple form. The 'symmetrical and geometric are the most easily held in mind as forms'(Morris).The objects I cast are close to human size, or fragmented into smaller divisions adding up to a body-volume. The sculptures assume uncomfortable postures, pulled by gravity towards the inertia of ground plane. This failure of holding one's shape is analogue to the power of forgetting. Though this failure of presence the sculptures of my most recent work come to shape already with the suggestion of their own collapse. Other sculptural parts anticipate this collapse. Their placement is a gesture of care (pillowing), allowing forgetting to slip deeper (a state of slumber).