Beyond the Visible - Collected Works by Zsuzsa Péreli
The exhibition is a comprehensive show of the work of Zsuzsa Péreli, a prominent figure in Hungarian tapestry art, featuring her most significant works in collaboration with several museums and private collectors, and including several recent tapestries presented for the first time. The oeuvre also traces the history and changing attitudes of the rise of contemporary tapestry art in Hungary.
Zsuzsa Péreli has played a fundamental role in the recovery of the genre's autonomy from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. In her tapestries, she combines the classical technical knowledge of woven tapestry with methods of found object use, magnification, dismantling and reduction of the material, pushing the boundaries of the process, but always retaining the traditional values of the medium. His works are characterised by a compositional discipline, but also by a lyrical sensibility and elevation, combined with a memory, a social critique or often spiritual content. His paintings often combine layers of time and space to create a world of their own, drawing on elements of the historical past, personal mythology and ecclesiastical visuality.
Schedule
The exhibition only partially follows the chronology. It explores the oeuvre through three thematic spaces, along the lines of distinct thematic and stylistic units, and then unfolds the multifaceted world of the career through further, more nuanced thematic units.
On the walls of the first room, the memories of the past come alive: works inspired by village, old family or archive photographs, a nostalgic interest in rural culture, which captures the objectified moments of village life in an allegorical framework through Péreli's documentary and lyrical formulation. In the same vein, his works on childhood and portraits of actresses are about the search for identity and artistic roles, and about the attachment to one's roots.
The second space takes us into the dimension of transcendence: it focuses on works expressing the inner, spiritual aspects of human existence, which exude a timeless, dreamlike atmosphere and, transcending the boundaries of traditional tapestry art, enter into dialogue with the genre of installation. Zsuzsa Péreli's tapestries, depicting metaphysical landscapes and angels, embody the inner journey of the soul, the silence of contemplation, consolation or even passing.
Kunsthalle Budapest
The largest exhibition hall in Budapest, in Heroes Square, just the opposite the Museum of Fine Arts.