A WorldWithout

Any Future

Mark Fridvalszki

Mark Fridvalszki1981, Budapest, lives and works in Berlin

markfridvalszki@gmail.com0049 176 841 45 296

Mark Fridvalszki graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2011 and was a post-graduate Meisterschüler student at the Academy of

Fine Arts in Leipzig (HGB, 2014 – 2017). Fridvalszki is the co-initiator and graphic editor of the publishing project and cross-discipinary movement and collective Technologie und das Unheimliche (or T+U, since 2014).

A rcheo-futurology, the excavation of visual remains of lost futures and modernist visions in a post-futuristic, atemporal age, has become the prime method in the art of Mark Fridvalszki. After the uncanny sediments of Cold War aesthetics, visionary yet threatening intersections of deep past and deep future from speculative geology to post-apocalyptic “haggard geometry” that defined the first decade of his work, this archeo-futurological impulse has brought a 180-degree turn: paranoia has been replaced by utopia, claus-trophobic bunker-existence expanded into vertiginous virtual perspectives, grayscale imagery gave way to a psychedelic palette, future-fears turned into future-fascinations.

The meta-collages, composed of visual materials of two distinct but in many ways parallel futuristic periods – the years around 1968 as the culmination point of “Popular Modernism” and the years of 1989 with a special emphasis on the Rave movement’s struggle against the neoliberal invasion of cultural and political imagination – are the sensual results of a seemingly paradox strategy of digging up the past in search of the future, unearthing the still potent utopian impulses repressed by the antimodern consensus. Fuelled by a nostalgia for the future, what Fridvalszki creates are artistic devices for a spectropolitical strategy to summon the exorcised ghosts of Modernity in order to break through the temporal claustrophobia of our presentist age.

Barnabás Zemlényi-Kovács

mailto:markfridvalszki%40gmail.com%20?subject=

M y body of work An Out of this World Event looks at ‘the last utopic moment’ from the perspective of today’s dystopic, uncertain present,

characterized by digital alienation. In my own memories, the last utopic,

global moment can be traced back to the early 1990s after the Fall of the

Berlin Wall. The atmosphere of the era can be captured when scanning

through its layers of alternative culture, namely the presence and effects of

techno and electronic music. What remains of these sub-, countercultural,

revolutionary movements, is captured within damaged, entropic, low-

resolution digital images and videos of that time.

My works react to these attitudes, combining the tools provided by digital

vand analogue technology. The original images serve as the basis for meta-

collages, which are infiltrated with typographies, logos and contemporary

visual symbols representative of the uncertain, increasingly dystopian techno-

present. Bringing forth inherent links between Xerox photocopying and the

punk subculture; DIY desktop publishing, offset print, CTP-technology, 3D

animation and early techno culture. Domestic desktop computers became

widely available in the 90s, a development that is closely connected to the

visual language of rave culture. This was accompanied by new technologies

in offset printing, which facilitated the heterogeneous visual identity of club

flyers or posters. As punk relied on Xerox, the same relationship can be said

about techno subcultures and early graphic editing software (Macromedia

Freehand, Coreldraw, a.o.), personal computers and the developing offset

printing industry.

The ongoing project also builds on the important events of techno culture in

order to expose and possibly escape from the polished world of consumerism

as well as to reveal its media-archaeological implictions. As an additional

juxtaposition, the utopic architectural visions of the 50s, 60s (mid-century

modernism or MCM) appear alongside the optimist moments of the early

90s. The used visual elements are enlarged images (found footage), zoomed-

in, highlighting geology, stratification, and the act of ‘digging’ through media.

Similar to the effect of the slow vertical movement of a microscope, we see a

disintegrated (entropic) pixel landscape with the image becoming more and

more focused on a detail as it narrows.

As the Budapest-based theorist Zsolt Miklósvölgyi recently summarized,

“sometimes it feels like as if we were trapped in a chess endgame where only

a few pieces left on the board repeating the exact same strategic pattern over

and over. This is what Franco Berardi in his book After Future calls as the

‘slow cancellation of the future’ that started during the 70s and 80s. It’s almost

ironical how the process of the slow cancellation of the future coincides with

the ever-accelerating speed of the ecstatic beats of the 90s rave culture. But

the more inconsolably we immerse ourselves into the instantaneous euphoria

of rave-optimism, the more inevitably will look like the disappearance of the

future on the other day. And that’s exactly why Fridvalszki’s party-hauntolog-

ical diagnosis also implies a cultural critique, as the ceaseless craving for ‘an

out of this world event’ is an unequivocal symptom of a world without any

future.”

An Out of this World Event I. (digital print (A3), 360x740cm) 2018D21 Kunstverein, Leipzig

An Out of this World Event III., solo show at Karlin Studios, Prague, 2019

Untitled (Escape) (wallpaper, digital print, each A3, 420x780cm, quote by Terence Mckenna, vinyl plotter cut, 100x120cm) 2019

An Out of this World Event III., silent disco happening w/ Radek Brousil, Saint Leidal The 2nd, DJ Kaa Glo

Vertigo (acrylic transfer on canvas, 50x70cm) 2019Time Out (acrylic transfer on canvas, 50x70cm) 2019

An Out of this World Event IV., solo show at Horizont Gallery, Budapest, 2019

Utopia (acrylic transfer on canvas, 70x100cm) 2018Takes You Into (acrylic transfer on canvas, 70x100cm) 2018

Euphoria (acrylic transfer on canvas, 70x100cm) 2018Energy Flash (R&S) (acrylic transfer on canvas, 50x70cm) 2018

Visions of Distant Ideas I, II (acrylic transfer on canvas, 70x100cm) 2019

Installation at Miart w/ Horizont Gallery (wallpaper, digital print (A3), 300x450cm, 2019(Wallpaper image source: Superstudio: Grid, india ink on tracing paper, 42,7x55,5cm, 1969)

Mirage (etude 1-3) (digital print, gouache on paper, 21x29,7cm) 2019

Failed Modernism in Blue (acrylic transfer on canvas, 50x70cm) 2019Lost Futures, 1962 (acrylic transfer on canvas, 50x70cm) 2019

Esterházy Award 2019, Ludwig Museum, Budapest

Homeless Between Yestermorrows, solo show at Horizont Gallery, Budapest, 2020

The Melody Haunts My Reverie III (mixed media, plywood, 35x35cm) 2020

Dreaming of Habitat 67 (Banksia grandis cone, metal rod, enamel paint, ~30x25x25cm) 2020Music Non Stop (mixed media, plywood, bluetooth speaker, 26x38x26cm, mix created by St. Leidal The 2nd, loop, 32’) 2020

Series Seriously Deep (gouache, canvas, 50x70cm) 2019

TIME OUT I (acrylic transfer, plywood, 75x110cm) 2020TIME OUT II (acrylic transfer, plywood, 75x110cm) 2020

Born in Life’s Fire 1, 4, 5 (oil on canvas, lath, 60x80cm) 2020

Fantazia VI (mechanical pen, gouache on aged paper, 21x29,7cm) 2020Shelter Utopia (digital print, watercolor on paper, 21x29,7cm) 2020

Jazz Cat (digital print, gouache on paper, 21x29,7cm) 2020

Escape to Forever, solo show at TIC Gallery, Brno, 2020Curated by Piotr Sikora

Jazz Yourself!, (A)cid – Pink, Psychedelize Yourself!, Swing Like Keith(gouache on plywood, 50x50cm) 2020

Future Perfect, solo show at ICA-D, Dunaújváros, H, 2020Curated by Barnabás Zemlényi-Kovács

An Out of This World Event I. (rehaunted) (digital print on blueback paper, 400x360cm) 2020, detailSchwung bench (plywood, RAL 2004 enamel paint, 177x42x30cm) 2020

‘Perfect Lines, Perfect Forms’ (installation, 28 pieces of Tam Tam stools, size variable) 2020

MF & Barnabás Kovács-Zemlényi: 1968-69: A Time Odyssey (digital print on blueback paper, 314x814cm) 2020

Forward and Up!, intervention in public space at Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, 2021(gouache on canvas, 180x180cm, digital print on blueback paper, 350x580cm, colored neon filter)

Who are we:

T+U (Technologie und das Unheimliche) is a Berlin-Budapest based publishing project and cross-disciplinary movement, that was initiated by Mark Fridvalszki, Zsolt Miklósvölgyi and Márió Z. Nemes. T+U aims to circuit the cultural phenom-ena resulting from the confrontation between the conditio humana and technol-ogy by thematic issues and related projects. Regarding to this mission, T+U mediates between cultural technologies within the context of post-digitality and tries to contaminate para-academic thinking with artistic tactics.

How we do:

Since T+U considers itself not only as an art collective, publishing project, but also as a movement, therefore printed issues are rather occasional manifesta-tions or materialisations of the movement as a such. The zines are not the end-products, but rather incarnations of a continuous intellectual and artistic processes.

What we do:

However it is crucial to us to do something forward looking, our publications are rather to be considered as retrofuturistic, atemporal, or archeological. Our zines are excavations of cultural tectonic plates, of collective fears and fantasies, of non-linear stories on possible future scenarios and alternate histories of the present.

Our aesthetic:

Rough, dark, techno-pessimistic, with a slight nostalgic touch. It contains remi-niscences both of punk zine aesthetics of the 70s and 80s, and of promotional issues for youngsters on science and technology from the Eastern part of the former Iron Curtain.

TECHNOLOGIE UND DAS UNHEIMLICHE (T+U)Cross-disciplinary movement and publishing project Since 2014

Digital images on Instagram, 2019 – 2021

http://instagram.com/mark_fridvalszki/

Education:

2014 – 2017 Meisterschüler, postgraduate studies at Academy for Visual Arst Leipzig (HGB) – Media Art2011 Diploma with distinction at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna2008 – 2011 Academy of Fine Arts Vienna – Graphic Arts and Printmaking2004 – 2008 University of Applied Arts Vienna – Graphic Arts and Printmaking

Membership:

Since 2019 KSK, BerlinSince 2019 Professional Association of Visual Artists (BBK), Berlin Since 2009 Studio of Young Artist Association (FKSE), Budapest

Collective:

Since 2014 Technologie und das Unheimliche (T+U)

Solo shows, projects (selection):

2021 Forward and Up!, Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin2020 Future Perfect, Contemporary Art (ICA-D), Dunaújváros (H)2020 Escape to Forever, Gallery TIC, Brno (CZ) 2020 Homeless Between Yestermorrows, Horizont Gallery, Budapest 2019 MIART w/ Horizont Gallery, Milan 2019 An Out of this World Event IV., Horizont Gallery, Budapest2019 An Out of this World Event III., Karlin Studios, Prague2018 Paris Internationale w/ Horizont Gallery, Paris2018 An Out of this World Event II., LLPlatform, Budapest2017 Material Study (Sonic), Super+ Centercourt feat. Sam Conran, München2017 Take Me Back feat. János Iván Kárpáti, Artkartell Projectspace, Budapest 2017 9,81, Art+Text Gallery, Budapest2016 New, Grey, Polished Chrome, Chimera-Project, Budapest

Group shows, projects (selection):

2021 OFF Biennale w/ T+U, Budapest 2020 Flagge zeigen, interventions in public space in Storkow (DE) 2020 Leaning on the Past, Working for the Future, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna2020 Close Friends, B2 Gallery, Leipzig2020 The World Is Flat and Square, Raum Vollreinigung, Berlin2019 Shortlist at Esterházy Award, Ludwig Museum, Budapest 2019 Parallel Vienna w/ Horizont Gallery, Vienna 2019 Conditio Inhumana, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest 2019 Research Network/Connections, Schafhof, Freising (D) 2018 Global Control and Censorship, operated by T+U, MODEM, Debrecen (H)2018 Reading the Cities, interventions in public space in Leipzig2018 If you are manipulated, manipulate back!, Kunstverein Kunsthaus Potsdam (D)2018 Where Do We Go From Here, Galerie Miroslava Kubíka, Litomyšl (CZ)2018 :-(, D21 Kunstverein, Leipzig2018 DOME, Zeiss-Grossplanetarium, Berlin2017 Rosebuds - Hidden Stories of Things, D21, Leipzig2017 Leopold Blood Art Award 2017, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest2017 The Pit and the Pendulum, OFF-Biennale II., Pécs (H)2016 Interference, Trafó Gallery, Budapest 2016 INTERMARIUM, BWA Sokół Gallery, Nowy Sącz (PL)2016 The Portent of Light, Gallery Meetfatory, Prague2016 Volkshymne, Gallery Nod, Prague2015 Inverz, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest 2015 Bewahren Speichern Präsentieren, Lage Egal, Berlin2015 Accumulation of Matter, Lehrter 17, Berlin2015 Around Analogies, w/ T+U, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart

Awards, prizes:

2019 Nomination for Esterházy Award, Budapest 2018 Working scolarship, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen (KdFS), Leipzig2017 Nomination for Leopold Bloom Art Award, Budapest2017 Nomination for Esterházy Award, Budapest

Residencies:

2019 Futura, AiR, Prague2018 7. Sympozium Litomyšl, curated by Jan Zálešák, Litomyšl (CZ)2018 The Last Amazonian Congress, curated by Lucia Tkáčová, Polana Forest (SK)2018 Ebenböck-Haus, AiR, München2018 Schafhof, AiR, Freising2015 Meetfactory, AiR, Prague2014 Igor Metropol, AiR, Budapest

Photos byDávid Biró, János Brückner, Paula Gehrmann, Renato Ghiazza, Zoltán Kerekes, Ludger Paffrath, Eva Rybářová, Tomáš Souček

More works on

http://markfridvalszki.comhttp://instagram.com/mark_fridvalszki

http://technologieunddasunheimliche.com

http://markfridvalszki.comhttp://instagram.com/mark_fridvalszkihttp://technologieunddasunheimliche.com