In parallel with the exhibition dedicated to Martin Disler, the MACT/CACT is also presenting works by CSABA KIS RÓKA (1981). A Hungarian artist of the latest generation, Kis Róka is not new to this part of the world, having already held a one-man show entitled SYMBOLISM, MYTHOLOGY AND GROTESQUE here in 2013, as well as taking part in several group shows in recent years.

Working primarily as a painter, the roots of his earliest artistic endeavours reach deep into the fusion between genre painting and the innovative impression of the message, even though in actual fact his references espouse a certain Eastern European expressiveness, however much the influence of Slavonic culture may come across as barely perceptible. His recent works once again reflect his artistic and civic commitment in a society, that of his native Hungary, that has transitioned from being part of the Soviet empire to today’s neo-capitalism, in which Europeanisation plays an important – if not a decisive – role in this moment in its history.

That much said, however, the works presented in this exhibition at the MACT/CACT can be dated to the artist’s vigorously figurative youthful period (2006-2014), although a certain recent abstract tendency does not in any way break down into anti-form.

Beset with erotism and the imminence of catastrophe, the works on show tackle social issues that still  reveal a close bond with the period before the fall of the Soviet bloc, when the concept of political repression also took the form of social stigmatisation, whose democratic dimension in the contemporary day and age brings with it both pleasures and punishments.

Our interest in Csaba Kis Róka derives from his ability once again to focus our minds on the evidence of a period in recent history that made such a mark on the last fifty years and that is now risking to result in a flashback that could be perilous for our global equilibrium and the revolutionary form of democratic order.

Mario Casanova, Bellinzona, 2024.
Translation from Italian by Pete Kercher

Csaba Kis Róka (1981), monotypes from the series Suspicious Minds, 2014. Monotypes on paper, signed lower right, 65 x 50 cm. Private collection, Switzerland.