Opening: 20 November 2015, 6 pm

Ádám Kokesch has an original take on the object culture of modernity and the traditions of abstract art, linking the aesthetics of abstract art with the aesthetics of imaginary high-tech design.

The purist aesthetics of classical modernism initially developed in parallel with modern interior design, product design and graphics. It was a phenomenon which first gained articulation through the work of the Bauhaus in the early twentieth century.

Kokesch above all examines the question of whether the parallel development of classical modernity and modern design, as we see it now, can serve as a model for creating a connection between today’s radical design aesthetics and radical art.

The upsurge in technological development caused design to progress by impulses from outside art and set off astounding advances. Design acquired a special interpretative relationship with technology, devised its own communication, and carved out an elite position by bringing the refinements of functional interpretation to new heights.

But what happens when design is deprived of its interpretative-communicative role? Does it become mere decoration? Kokesch produces technical fakes and imitations, actually ironic experiments in reconstructing the relationship between radical design and radical art. Through their “blether”, these art works seem to deliver a deeper understanding of that connection, or indeed of its fictive character.

Curator: Eszter Őze, Edit Sasvári
Graphic design: Klára Rudas
Communication: Anna Juhász, Boglárka Kőrösi
Translation: Alan Campbell
Supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary

Kassák Museum, 20 November 2015 - 21 February 2016