Gergö Bánkúti in Innsbruck: A fisherman in the pool of fading memories | Tyrolean daily newspaper online

Gergö Bánkúti mag Kinder und Kinder mögen ihn. In Innsbruck hat der gelernte Maler sein Faible für Ton als Werkstoff entdeckt.

© Foto Rudy De Moor

By Edith Schlocker

Innsbruck – You can tell at first glance that Gergö Bánkúti likes children and they like him when you see the young Hungarian painter, graphic artist and ceramist in Innsbruck’s bilding. Where the 29-year-old was the first “artist in residence” at the great Innsbruck art and architecture school to move his studio. To work on his art here as well as with the young participants in the various workshops.

Hungarian State Prize for Artists under 35

An activity in which not only the children learn a lot, but also he learns a lot, says the Budapest graduate of the University of Fine Arts, who has just won the Derkó Award, the most important Hungarian state prize for artists under 35. Associated with a one-year work grant of 400 euros per month and an exhibition in the Budapest Art Hall. Where Gergö Bánkúti shows the works that have been created here in Innsbruck over the past few months.

In addition to small ink drawings that are wonderfully light-fingered, there are also ceramics. He got a taste for working with clay by participating in the International Sculptor Symposium held in Innsbruck last summer, where Gabriela Nepo was his highly praised “teacher”, from whom he has provided everything necessary in connection with this so far learned foreign technology.

To be seen as a means of expression that corresponds very closely to Bánkúti. After all, he is a narrator of stories in which the real and the unreal are linked in an often surreal way. When thoughts take shape, the real is transformed to often peculiarly hermaphroditic ambiguity. Symbols that the artist borrows from local folk art and religious devotional objects as well as various archaic mythologies. An act brought into the here and now, which, however, comes across as playful, at times almost naive, charged with a lot of irony and subtle humor.

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Tearing relics from yesterday from oblivion

“My main interest is the exploration of memory, the fading of feelings,” says Gergö Bánkúti. To wrest relics from yesterday from oblivion by placing them in a completely new context. In ceramics, but, depending on the topic, also painting and drawing with Indian ink. Because a fundamental openness characterizes the personality and way of working of the young Hungarian, who feels extremely comfortable in Innsbruck and has already made many contacts here. He has also got used to working in the display of the bilding, so to speak, even if it was a bit “strange” at the beginning, in order to now almost enjoy this exposure.

At the end of June, his year as “artist in residence” of the bilding expires, but he will remain in the coming year as an important member of the regular program. Gergö Bánkúti will take stock of his first year in Innsbruck in an exhibition, although it is not yet clear when and where it will take place.

It is certain that another artist will follow Bánkúti. The call for tenders will run until the end of March and the interest of artists from practically all over the world is huge, says bilding managing director Monika Abendstein. A jury will decide who wins the race.

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