Needle & Balloon

The current ecological and political situation or state of society, marked by the context of recent period of at least two years, make contemplations on fragility more pressing than ever. Such slogans as stability, value, and guarantee have lost their meaning. After all, the impossible and unimaginable seems to be possible and real. The international exhibition Needle & Balloon is a response to the issue of fragility and related feeling of borderline tension. It follows central motifs in the context of contemporary visual arts, emerging on the background of deliberations on economic systems, the alarming ecological situation, the state of our planet, and the impact of today’s decisions on our potential future. The curator’s project focuses on a new-age emotionality and inner feelings, following inclinations towards personal mythology and renewed ideas of romanticism. The exhibition goes hand in hand with the feelings of anxiety, melancholy, and sadness, and intriguing aspects of fiction, mysticism, unsettled reality, and a dystopian and post-apocalyptic atmosphere. The group exhibition, anchored in the space, history, and the atmosphere of the Trnava Synagogue, is a selection of young and mid generation artists from Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Austria. Connected to the topic of fragility in multiple layers, the multimedia selection naturally shifts from painting to sculptures, installations, and videos. The narratives of selected artworks, underlining transience of human life, and existence as such form a central motif of the project. The chosen artworks speak about natural evolution, the end of the world or, alternatively, an impossible and unnatural effort to stop time and preserve the present. The strong symbolism of motifs and materials used underscores the lyrical facet of the display of works, complemented by their formal aspects, with suggestive use of materials, their stability, durability, and visual representation. Although the project does not offer a direct reaction to the history associated with the Jewish culture, or unrelenting echoes of global pandemics and wars, their presence remains to a subconscious memento, a warning finger of the exhibition itself.