A kiss, a hat, a stamp [antikvár]

kiss. Diango Hernandez's practice is frequently described as 'conceptual': inspired by versions and visions of many lived realities. It is deeply rooted in his Cuban upbringing of the 1970-80s and therefore resonates with the attitudes and visual semantics of the Soviet era. Objects are found, materials are (re)appropriated and political rhetoric engages lived intelligence, subtle humour and personal sentiment. Blood Mountain Foundation, a private non-profit arts organisation based in Budapest, invited Diango as its inaugural artist-in-residence in November 2010. His poetic approach and Hungary's own history as a former Soviet satellite state were an obvious match. The residency comprised three tireless weeks of looking, finding, assembling and re-appropriating materials from flea markets, antique dealerships and a specialist artisan workshop. The resulting exhibition, 'a kiss, a hat, a stamp', became a tribute to the city's age-old tradition of independent creative practices and its rich culture of second-hand goods. It focused on fragments and edges, rather than whole objects and actual surface areas, allowing the discovered elements to take on new forms and new meanings in their revised settings. The first of three exhibition spaces presents two free-standing sculptures, another sculpture positioned at ground level, two wall paintings and a collage. Objects (1) and (3) consist of a tabletop, a table's edge, the frame of a mirror and chair fragments. Positioned loosely across from one another, one is transparent and circular, the other is solid and rectilinear. The juxtaposition with a lampshade and an aged stamp, respectively, complete their compositions. Object(3), displayed directly on the ground, is a long totem-like work composed of furniture elements with rounded edges and ornamental detail. Three elements are positioned under its linear form as if to support the flow of its narrative beyond the confines of the object and the setting. Its resemblance to the Transylvanian woodwork that characterises much of Hungary's built environment, together with a homage to Brancusi's signature totem poles, are not accidental. Local audiences will recognise the materials and motifs of Object 3 from period furniture, which among many places, decorated the halls of Blood Mountain in its heyday: a former family estate built during the Habsburg empire. The iconography of the aforementioned artworks serves as an additional nod to the objects and lives which defined Hungary's subsequent socialist era. The installation's articulation of the city's character and layout is powerful. Simultaneously divided and united by the voluptuous floor piece (the Danube River); it is voluminous and airy on one side (Buda), compact and grid-like on the other (Pest). The additional elements of white ceramic lamp motifs suggest the stark socialist structures that pepper the elegant Buda hills. The generous curves and colour scheme of the opposite composition, accompanied by a colourful Hungarian stamp, is characteristic of the grand neo-baroque buildings that define Pest's charm and beauty. Diango's work relies on the inherent narrative and beauty found in 'the incidental'. A chance finding and grouping of objects creates new 'realities' and at once expresses the artist's fascination with them. There is however nothing inadvertent about the chosen elements and their placement: the meeting of two materials is destined and is at best compared to an embrace, 'a kiss' is thus indicative of a physical sensation as much as a fortuitous meeting of minds.