KÉSZENLÉT 2.1
The exhibition entitled ‘ON STANDBY’ took shape in the office block of the Inota Thermal Power Station – which has been closed since 2001 – during this year’s INOTA Festival. It is a building where work seems to have come to an end overnight: the files, coffee cups, chairs and tables still bear the traces of everyday life as it once was. The industrial site has since been taken over by new inhabitants: today, sheep graze around the thermal power station. It is the encounter between this reality and Péter Weiler’s sheep figures that has produced one of the exhibition’s most powerful images: the sheep are at work.
Schedule
The exhibition’s title was inspired by the name of the ‘standby’ housing estate next to the power station. ‘Standby’ is originally a temporary state: when we are not yet acting, but are ready to do so at any moment. For contemporary people, however, this state is becoming less and less temporary. Notifications, deadlines, messages and constant availability keep us on standby. With the advent of artificial intelligence, our own replaceability has also become a constant concern alongside our work. We are constantly learning, adapting and optimising, whilst trying to keep pace with a system whose rhythm is increasingly less dictated by humans.
STANDBY 2.1 is now moving out of Inota’s former office building and into Budapest city centre. The exhibition does not reconstruct the original venue, but brings with it its conceptual and visual imprint. The works now appear in an urban setting where a state of readiness is no longer the preserve of an industrial plant, but the default state of everyday life.
Curator of the exhibition: Vivien Galcsik
yes gallery
yes! is an experimental gallery that highlights human creativity and genuine encounters over digital noise
