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.
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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.
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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.