Harsay Ilona kiállítása (Budapest Galéria Kiállítóháza, Budapest, 1985)

A FEW WORDS ON ILONA HARSAY'S LEATHER CREATIONS Brown leather figures in her studio welcome us. Some are lying on the floor, others are hanging on the wall, some are in the comer, all over the place. In the actual exhibition they are lined up in a neat row. They are leather statues and costumes. If we take a closer look, we see that they are anthropomorphic leather skins, skins stretched over hollows. The artist has created shallow reliefs out of flat skins of leather. We should understand Ilona Harsav's message. Her choice of material is not accidental. In the workshops the leather was pressed, tanned, curried, embossed. Here Ilona Harsay continues the process. Leather, like other materials has a memory. Remembers and makes us remember. These sheets of leather carry their origin and history with them and do not let us forget that their history is a part of ours. What is more, the skin is a living material. The border of the countries is a thin line. On the line itself everything to the left and to the right gels together. The things which envelope human beings contain more than just a line, and this line divides the living from the dead, the individual from society, the male from the female. It has a condensed memory. We cannot look at skin like any other material. Let us examine the origin of the skin. We can only get skin by stripping it off a living creature. We tear away the covering of a superior complex being, and press it into a sheet. That is how we get our material, and possess everything that this covering once contained. The leather hides the dilemma of the taking of life and the ability to turn it back into a threedimensional form. At the dawn of our history the origin of the arts and the stripped skin had much in common. Some of our archaic sayings remind us of this: „He was so frightened he jumped out of his skin." „He cannot be at peace in his own skin." „I would not like to be in his skin." „Saving his own skin." Tne skin to our ancestors was a symbol of their very selves, something which could live. Evrything they covered with skin e. g. timber, rocks, earth, come to life they believed. In our technological modem world we know nothing about this. We are only interested in how much a skin is worth. It is not us who kills for it, but the factory. But in the tight gleaming costumes of the disco-queens something of our ancient past remains. We condone the tragic state of our environment and the humiliating slaughter of the animal species. We must open our eyes to this wanton destruction of life. Once upon a time it was the shaman's duty but now the artist says: Beware! Ilona Harsay knowing this, risks her skin. She creates statue-like costumes, wnich fill the space behind themselves with meaning. These costumes, masks strengthen the actor's (the shaman) gestures to make a total effect. Imre Schrammel 1942. Bom in Budapest 1968. College of Applied Arts - Diploma 1970. National Shoe Design competition From 1970 individual and joint exhibitions in Hungary and abroad. (Budapest, Helsinki, Sofia, Praga, Antwerpen, Frankfurt, Linz, Moscow, Ulánbátor) From 1971 she designs theatrical costumes together with the designer Judit Schäffer: Gregory VH, Ban Bánk, That nice, shiny day, Troilus and Cressida, Antigone, The return of Ullysses, King Lear, Bacchanal, The wedding of Susa... WORKS: Museum for Applied Arts - Budapest; Museum of Fine Arts - Budapest Middelheim- Museum park - Antwerpen: City Council - Gyor; Restaurant Gundel - Budapest. The theatrical leather products were made to the costumes of Judit Schäffer. Fotók: Koncz Zsuzsa és Cservenka Ferenc Fk. : Zsigmond Attila főigazgató

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