Kotormán Norbert // Lóval a Holdba

As a result of the episode he had imagined with the red-haired woman sitting opposite him, Galen suddenly thought — perhaps for the very first time — that he ought to escape from this endless succession of episodes. Because perhaps beyond the Experience Beings there was someone real. Someone more enduring, more lasting, more stable, someone who was... not such an easily vanishing, worthless fraud as these Experience Beings.

“Excuse me?” the red-haired woman asked.

“Oh, forgive me, it seems I was thinking out loud.”

“No problem,” the woman replied reservedly. She placed the September issue of Artforum on the seat beside her, leaned back, removed her glasses and closed her eyes.

After three seconds of company, Galen was left alone with the open Artforum magazine. On one of its inside pages was a half-page photograph of a sculpture exhibition. The space was not particularly large. At its centre stood what appeared to be a life-sized horse. Carved from wood, smooth, without eyes, hooves or saddle: an ancient horse radiating a pure and childlike strength. The idea of the horse. The wood was raw, pinkish, almost skin-like. A simplicity that seemed to precede and outlast everything. Around the horse, figures suspended from the ceiling appeared to float. Made from different materials, caught in different movements, they were all faceless, their small bodies stretched and strained in various ways.

Galen John Strawson recognised them. He leaned closer to the magazine and read the caption: an exhibition by a Central Eastern European sculptor at Einspach & Czapolai Gallery, 12 Hold Street, Budapest, in November 2026. Clearly a misprint, since today is 8 October 2009, he said aloud. The beautiful red-haired woman opened her eyes. She saw Galen leaning over the Artforum magazine before sitting back, visibly confused.

Excerpt from Rudolf Merena’s opening speech