Bálint Rádóczy: Dirty Work

Dirty Work

Dirty work. Someone has to do that too. Dirty work usually means something people don’t like to deal with, although the processing and transforming of the excess, the surplus, as well as the transformation itself, are all essential elements of any circulation. The visual noise created by the mass media, the television, the Internet and street advertisements influences our everyday lives just as the language and tools of contemporary visual art. The simplification of the creation and the production of, as well as the easy access to technical images have brought about an excess of images, and thus a creation of a surplus.

Bálint Rádóczy reflects upon the economic and social problems caused by globalization and certain aspects and gestures of the contemporary artistic practice. His photographs depict trash and waste, which – removed from their original context – appear as aesthetic spectacles and raise existential questions like what we find disposable, what becomes redundant, what we consider to be of value, and what just dirt is. The captions reflect on the current state of the art and creation itself. The usage of the billboard as a medium evokes the feeling of momentariness, the short period we can spend with taking in the images. Meanwhile, the performance itself, the putting up of the posters, is a long and slow process, during which the artist gets into direct contact with the pictures. In the course of mounting the layers on each other, each picture and the texts are visible only for a short time, which does not make it possible to ponder over them, and so the layers being laid on each other represent the process of quick consumption and transitoriness.

The envelope-pushing performance/installation Dirty Work prompts reflection and self-reflection while presenting a covert criticism of consumer society, the specific medium, and the elitist art-market. According to the creative statement of Bálint Rádóczy, “Waste has an ability to mirror human states of mind, reflect upon the nature of knowledge, logic, ethics, epistemology, transience, continuity, and imperfections. What I do is not criticism. I just make this aspect of our civilization visible by showing the other side of the coin, which in turn may provide its own criticism.”

(Judit Gellér, curator)

Bálint Rádóczy, independent visual researcher. Born in Budapest, Hungary, 1977, working in Basel, Switzerland, Gothenburg, Sweden & Pécs, Hungary. MFA graduate of Zurich University of the Arts, 2014. Art director, vice president and member of the curatorial board of Cinema Apollo Foundation, Pécs, Hungary. Ex-honorary member of the Studio of Young Photographers Hungary. Received a Bachelor’s Degree at the Kodolányi János University of Applied Sciences, Hungary, in Humanities in Communication and Media Studies, 1997, a Diploma at the University of Szeged, Hungary in Humanities, Liberal arts, media and communication, 2002. Started visual arts studies at the age of 10, at Martyn Ferenc Free School of Arts in Hungary.