Miklós Surányi: Overview effect

Visiting is free of charge
September 16, 2021 – October 16, 2021
Monday – Saturday: 9am – 7pm
Closed on Sunday.
Capa Center – 8F Gallery
Curator: Emese Mucsi

Astronauts oftentimes reported about a strange and overwhelming sensation they felt when they first looked back on Earth far away from space. In the cosmic perspective, the planet they spent their whole life on seemed like a pale blue marble or a tiny dot. National borders disappeared and global conflicts looked irrelevant. The sight from tens of thousands of kilometers away made man infinitesimally small and at the same time revealed every living being as part of one organic unity; this experience evoked caring feelings for the Earth, which were similar to a parent’s worry for their child. Feeling their own insignificance, the astronauts’ general fright was growing as well as their sense of responsibility for their environment. Miklós Surányi’s photo series constructs a big picture upon the Earth similar to this, making the feeling called overview effect experienced by the astronauts accessible to the greater public. He collects found views and builds poetic compositions out of everyday objects into his inventory: the starry sky appearing at the end of a drinking straw; an inkpad as a gaping black hole; the light of a solar eclipse passing through a keyhole; a piece of tarpaulin in the colors of the surface of the Moon; etc. This simulacrum-collection of his is powerful enough to achieve a cognitive shift in awareness just as the cosmic glance down on the Earth from outer space is; only his images are devoid of the pathos of the latter.

Emese Mucsi
curator

Miklós Surányi was born in Budapest in 1976. He graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts with a degree in Intermedia. His works featured in numerous exhibitions in Hungary and abroad. He was granted several scholarships, including the Pécsi József Photography Grant, and he participated in artist residency programs in Marseille, France and Žilina, Slovakia. He has been a member of a number of professional organizations and been involved in the management of LUMEN Gallery and the Studio of Young Artists’ Association. He has been working as a photographer and an art director since 2010.