Opening remarks by: Enikő Róka, art historian
"If there is a period in history that is painted grey on a grey background, it is definitely ours.
People make their own history, even if it is through the media vacuum of touch screens, but never freely, according to their own choices, but directly following ready-made, inherited patterns and pre-given circumstances. The tradition of all the dead and shadow generations weighs like a nightmarish burden on the living, and just when it seems that they are working to transform themselves and the situation, to create something that has never existed before, it is precisely in such times of crisis that they summon the ghosts of the past to serve themselves, borrowing their names, their slogans, their costumes, to stage a new farce of world history in such archaic, venerable disguises and borrowed language.
The exhibition of new collaborative works by Ferenc Gróf and Zsófia Gyenes evokes some of the forgotten shadows of the recent past that still haunt us today: the ultra-left opposition of the former socialism, the official revolutionary museum of the same regime, the Hungarian Museum of the Labour Movement, whose foundations have now been dug up and destroyed by an obscure neo-neo-Renaissance sect, and an anarchist theoretical work published as samizdat. The exhibition is a kind of glossary, a collection of phonemes of a grammar in need of reconstruction. One is not born a ghost, but becomes one".
Rubber stamps on paper, each 50 x 60 cm, 2024
Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
Rubber stamps on paper, detail, each 50 x 60 cm, 2024.
Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
Rubber stamps on paper, detail, each 50 x 60 cm, 2024.
Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
Rubber stamps on paper, detail, each 50 x 60 cm, 2024.
Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
Rubber stamps on fabric, 278 x 193 cm, and works on paper, 50 x 60 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
Rubber stamps on fabric, 278 x 193 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
Rubber stamps on fabric, detail, 278 x 193 cm, 2024. Photo: Attila Toró.
The first solo exhibition of Gróf & Gyenes, An Iceberg of One’s Own (Magma, Sfântu Gheorghe, 2024), was inspired by the iceberg metaphor developed by Maria Mies. The German sociologist published The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy in 1999, in collaboration with Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen. One of the now-famous diagrams from this book presents the iceberg model of the capitalist-patriarchal economy.
In this model, the tip of the iceberg represents the world of waged labor, governed by capital and employment contracts. Beneath the surface lies a series of invisible spheres that form its foundation: informal and unregulated labor relations, child labor, as well as subsistence and non-market economies.
Equally hidden from view, domestic and care work—primarily carried out by women—belong to the sphere of social reproduction, alongside the appropriation of colonial resources. At the very base of the entire structure is nature itself. This is the model of patriarchal capitalism, where the visible economy rests upon the invisible worlds of the exploited. Gróf and Gyenes used one of the administrative system’s favorite graphic reproduction tools—the rubber stamp—to reinterpret this metaphor.
Photos: Attila Kispál, Attila Törő
260 × 160 cm, printed cotton fabric, acrylic paint; 6 carved cellular concrete stamps, each 20 × 20 × 20 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
260 × 160 cm, printed cotton fabric, acrylic paint; 6 carved cellular concrete stamps, each 20 × 20 × 20 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
260 × 160 cm, printed cotton fabric, acrylic paint; 6 carved cellular concrete stamps, each 20 × 20 × 20 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
260 × 160 cm, printed cotton fabric, acrylic paint; 6 carved cellular concrete stamps, each 20 × 20 × 20 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Levente Vargyasi.
260 × 160 cm, printed cotton fabric, acrylic paint; 6 carved cellular concrete stamps, each 20 × 20 × 20 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
260 × 160 cm, printed cotton fabric, acrylic paint; 6 carved cellular concrete stamps, each 20 × 20 × 20 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA. Photo: Attila Toró.
The textile work Proposition for a New Flag – Meander evokes the control of waterways. The Greek term “meander” originates from the name of a winding river in Asia Minor, the Maiandros. One of the great challenges of global modernity has been ensuring river navigability, expanding arable land, meeting agricultural and industrial water demands, and reducing flood risks. This has led to the radical transformation of natural riverbeds—a process of “de-meandering” waterways shaped over millennia. Is it possible to restore river floodplains? Can we rewild overregulated drainage systems?
From a technical perspective, Proposition for a New Flag – Meander employs stamping, a printmaking technique that is a variation of block printing. Here, the printing blocks are not carved from wood but from concrete—the same material used to reinforce riverbeds. The stamp is not only a traditional tool in the textile industry but also an instrument of bureaucratic power, conferring legitimacy and validating political and economic decisions. The stamp approves. The stamp inscribes something onto us from the outside—it marks us.
And yet, in this process, the stamp repeats. Repetition can be mere duplication, a mechanical reproduction, but it also holds the potential for subtle transformation. Through repetition, we have the choice to reshape—to create new patterns. (After a text by Noémi Bíró.)
250 × 280 cm, cotton, acrylic pigments, 2022–24
Photo: Levente Vargyasi
250 × 280 cm, cotton, acrylic pigments, 2022–24
Installation view at MAGMA.
250 × 280 cm, cotton, acrylic pigments, 2022–24
Photo: Attila Toró
250 × 280 cm, cotton, acrylic pigments, 2022–24
250 × 280 cm, cotton, acrylic pigments:
1 – soil from the forge workshop;
2 – oxidized iron dust from the foundry grinding workshop;
3 – soil from the locksmith workshop;
4 – foundry residues (lime);
5 – foundry floor (molding sand)
The title Creosote Landscape is derived from a North American shrub known for its resilience in arid regions. This plant ensures its survival at the expense of surrounding vegetation by absorbing water and nutrients while releasing toxic substances that inhibit the growth of other organisms and deter herbivores.
The symbolic system of Creosote Landscape reconfigures the graphic elements of geological and mineralogical maps, which traditionally indicate the locations of various minerals. Its color palette is drawn from materials collected at the Dunaferr steel plant in Dunaújváros, Hungary—byproducts of industrial production. Through their materiality and textures, these elements combine to form an abstract landscape of extraction and production.
exhibition view, photo: Attila Kispál
70 × 80 × 10 cm, stamped textile ribbon, extruded polystyrene, 2024. Photo: Toró Attila.
The wrapping of the bull, reminiscent of a mummy, unites two symbols. On one hand, it references the raging bull of Wall Street; on the other, it alludes to the letter A from the Phoenician alphabet, which evolved from a hieroglyph depicting a bull’s or ox’s head into a phonetic letter. The stylized bull’s head is encased in a ribbon stamped with the repeating text: The heart of the matter / the matter of the heart…
The bull symbolizes the primacy of writing and language as instruments of power and control. The stamped text—the heart of the matter of the heart of the matter—reflects the duality of language, where words shape reality and can either obscure or reveal truth. The bull’s head, a potent emblem of masculinity, evokes the aggressive and often oppressive force of power, both in ancient and contemporary contexts.
70 × 80 × 10 cm, stamped textile ribbon, extruded polystyrene, 2024. Photo: Toró Attila.
The reference to Wall Street’s bull, an enduring symbol of the stock market and a global archetype of unrestrained financial capitalism, situates the work within the sphere of economic domination and the masculine symbols tied to finance and industry. Here, the bull—traditionally a force of nature—is transformed into an object of authority and control, mirroring how financial capital asserts its dominance over global economies.
At the same time, the bull’s connection to the Phoenician alphabet recalls the historical roots of written power, where the written word itself became a tool of domination, shaping civilization and reinforcing patriarchal structures. The work thus offers a meditation on how symbols of masculinity, money, and language interweave to sustain systems of power.
30x80x10 cm, cast iron, 2024. Photo: Attila Toró.
As one moves further into the space, the work titled Society can be seen placed on the floor, reflecting on the segment of the iceberg diagram related to colonies. Until 2020, the library of All Souls College at the University of Oxford was named after Christopher Codrington, a Barbadian plantation owner who, upon his death in 1710, donated a significant sum to his alma mater. Codrington’s sugarcane plantations, cultivated by enslaved people, were inherited by a religious organization that still operates today: the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). In line with the inhumane practices of the time, the SPG branded enslaved individuals, burning the word Society onto their chests—a term that can mean company, society, or corporation. The cast-iron object lying on the floor was created using a typeface designed in Oxford in the early 18th century.
30x80x10 cm, cast iron, 2024.
120x100x25 cm, beehives, cellular concrete cubes, 2024. Photo: Levente Vargyasi.
120x100x25 cm, beehives, cellular concrete cubes, 2024.
250 × 280 cm, cotton, acrylic pigments:
1 – soil from the forge workshop;
2 – oxidized iron dust from the foundry grinding workshop; 3 – soil from the locksmith workshop; 4 – foundry residues (lime); 5 – foundry floor (molding sand), 2024.
more here
Rubber stamps on fabric, 278 x 193 cm, and works on paper, 50 x 60 cm, 2024. Installation view at MAGMA, photo: Attila Toró.
The starting point of the exhibition My Own Iceberg was Maria Mies’ iceberg metaphor. In 1999, the German sociologist, together with Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, published The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalised Economy, a book featuring a now-famous diagram—the iceberg model of the capitalist patriarchal economy.
As a first step, we reinterpreted this diagram, which illustrates the economic exploitation of the invisible majority, using one of the favorite graphic reproduction tools of administrations: stamps. The rest of the exhibition essentially examines individual elements of the iceberg model.
more here
39x71x10 cm, painted concrete, photo: Attila Kispál.
In the same room as the stamped series, we placed a concrete cast that also references one of Maria Mies and her comrades' books (Mies, Maria; Bennholdt-Thomsen, Veronika; Werlhof, Claudia von. 1988. Women: The Last Colony. London: Zed Books). The piece, Women: The Last Colony (Cover), functions as a kind of horizontal monument.
Opening speech by Noémi Bíró > Hungarian > English.
Press release: In 2022, the worlds of textile designer Zsófia Gyenes and visual artist Ferenc Gróf converged in a collaborative journey. After over two decades in Paris, they relocated to Orléans, where, in October 2023, they established their joint studio. Their collective works traverse the boundary between textile design and visual art, creating a unique fusion of these fields. Their inaugural joint exhibition draws inspiration from the iceberg metaphor of Maria Mies (1931-2023), the German ecofeminist thinker, as articulated in her 1999 work The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalised Economy, co-authored with Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen. This metaphor critiques the economic model of patriarchal capitalism. The exhibition features works created over the past year, inspired by diagrams, infographics, and political slogans reflecting ecological and economic despair. Through these pieces, they aim to construct new building blocks, offering a fresh perspective on these pressing issues.