FERENC GROF: INTERNATIONAL ROOM
Sodobna umetnost (Aljoša Abrahamsberg),
28. december 2023
― Stojite pred neogostkim nebotičnikom, kot da izrisanim iz DC Comics stripa – Katedrala učenosti. Zgradba, ki še najmanj ni fiktivna, predstavlja osrednji del Univerze v Pittsburghu v Pensilvaniji, ZDA. V notranjosti stavbe najdete več kot trideset “narodnih sob”, ki obeležujejo kulturno dediščino skupnosti, ki so podpirale in načrtovale gradnjo mesta Pittsburgh. Med njimi je mogoče najti jugoslovansko sobo, angleško sobo, irsko, škotsko, nemško, madžarsko in številne druge. V njej pa sicer ni prostora za “internacionaliste”, ki so v Pittsburrghu ustvarili pomembno središče delavskih gibanj v ZDA. International Room je samostojna razstava madžarskega umetnika Ferenca Grofa. Instalacija v prostoru MoTA LAB deluje kot predlog za sobo, ki bi v katedrali učenosti obeležila duhove internacionalistov skupaj z njihovimi etničnimi paralelami. Imagine a neo-gothic skyscraper, right out of a DC Comics – the Cathedral of Learning – an existing construction, that is the centerpiece at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, United States. Inside the building, there are more than thirty ‘nationality rooms’ commemorating the cultural heritage of the communities that supported and planned the city’s construction. Amongst them one can find the Yugoslav Room, English Room, Irish, Scottish, German, Hungarian, and many more. Yet there is no room for the ‘Internationalists’, which is all the more disconcerting given the role Pittsburgh played in the history of the US workers’ movement. International Room is a solo exhibition by the Hungarian artist Ferenc Gróf. The installation at the MoTA LAB space acts as a proposal for the ‘International room’ that would commemorate the ghosts of the internationalists, alongside their ethnic counterparts, in the Cathedral of Learning.