LIGHT ART IS THE ART OF POSSIBILITIES Curator: Pietro Franesi Artist: Attila Csaji In my view, during <strong>the</strong> last few decades light has increasingly become <strong>on</strong>e of <strong>the</strong> most important artistic media due to <strong>the</strong> opto-electr<strong>on</strong>ic revoluti<strong>on</strong> and to <strong>the</strong> cooperati<strong>on</strong> of artists, scientists and engineers. I have built my works, <strong>the</strong> holograms and <strong>the</strong> laser envir<strong>on</strong>ment to be presented at NYBA, up<strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong>se results. In holography, I am first of all interested in those virtual possibilities which are hidden behind <strong>the</strong> basic magic of it: it means not reproducti<strong>on</strong>, but visual creati<strong>on</strong>. I am searching for those possibilities which are opened up <strong>on</strong>ly by holography. For example, <strong>the</strong> c<strong>on</strong>testati<strong>on</strong> of <strong>the</strong> spatial evidences (e.g., Spring for Voltaire), transparency of masses (Hun-Jarrya), floating/levitati<strong>on</strong> (e.g., Light Calligraphies).l would like to show a multimedia light sculpture, mobile in time and space and accompanied by music, too. Today, drawing with light lines is almost magical. It is pulsating, alive, you see it being born from a point of light, <strong>the</strong> scale of <strong>the</strong> line drawing is expanded. These potentialities for me are inevitably c<strong>on</strong>trasted with <strong>the</strong> start, <strong>the</strong> very beginning, <strong>the</strong> pictograph – with <strong>the</strong> drawing of <strong>the</strong> prehistoric age. These prehistoric drawings could be reinterpreted with light. They could become a virtual reality by which <strong>the</strong> space of a gallery could be turned into a light-bunting. A thoughtful experience is created which makes an unusual c<strong>on</strong>trast between <strong>on</strong>e of <strong>the</strong> world’s most dynamical cities, New York, and <strong>the</strong> prehistoric paintings that were <strong>on</strong>e of <strong>the</strong> first visual experiences of mankind. Attila Csáji is an artist researcher from Budapest, <strong>on</strong>e of <strong>the</strong> most important organizers of <strong>the</strong> Hungarian neo-avantgarde in <strong>the</strong> 60s and 70s. He is a painter, a graphic artist, a lights artist and a holographer, so he’s definable as a “scientist artist” because his art work can communicate through particular scientific techniques. In particular, <strong>the</strong> use of laser beams and holograms presupposes a very wide knowledge of physics, in fact, <strong>the</strong>se techniques prove to be still quite complicated. He was supported by <strong>the</strong> “Central Research Institute for Physics” of Budapest, <strong>the</strong> American “Interscience Tech nology” and many o<strong>the</strong>rs who have recognized Csáji’s talent. He participated in 450 exhibiti<strong>on</strong>s including <strong>the</strong> most important events in <strong>the</strong> field of art and science such as “Electra 83”, exhibiti<strong>on</strong>s of <strong>the</strong> Paris Museum of Modern Art based <strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong> use of electricity in art, and “Lichtblicke”, <strong>the</strong> first world holography art exhibiti<strong>on</strong> in Frankfurt. Now Attila Csáji is going to arrive at NY BIENNALE ART as <strong>the</strong> artist of a special project called “light art”, as a spokesman of “Immaterialism”, <strong>the</strong> Manifesto of NYBA. What does Immaterialism mean? What is its relati<strong>on</strong>ship to art? Art was born from <strong>the</strong> distance between its manifestati<strong>on</strong>s and reality, through artificial shapes created by <strong>the</strong> artist. C<strong>on</strong>temporary art creates a gap from objective reality, which carries <strong>on</strong> a process of outdistancing from what <strong>the</strong> subject is and what it can represent: this is <strong>the</strong> “principle of indifference”. For this reas<strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong> “Bottle Dryer” of Duchamp played a revoluti<strong>on</strong>ary role in c<strong>on</strong>temporary art. The subject of an art work acquires new values. Duchamp asks himself: “ What is a work of art? If I took a bottle dryer from a wine merchant and put it in a gallery, would it be a work of art?” Yes, because <strong>the</strong> bottle dryer, in that case, doesn’t represent its classical functi<strong>on</strong> but is a translati<strong>on</strong> of reality, it acquires a new shape that takes <strong>the</strong> place of <strong>the</strong> original <strong>on</strong>e. The object loses <strong>the</strong> original functi<strong>on</strong> but suggests something else, giving rise to a lot of different subjective feelings. 4 5