The site-specific installation in the foyer of the Kunstverein will be visible 24/7 during the show. Mark Fridvalszki's artworks deal with the sensual materiality of failed modernist visions. Usually, the artist mixes a wide variety of media, such as wallpaper, found and manufactured objects, digital printing, and other printing techniques, and combines them in all-embracing collages. His artistic program can be described as archaeo-futurological, meaning that it deals with the remains of forgotten utopias, the cultural sediments of our lost collective future. This gives an idea of how to interpret the title of his new installation Forward and Up!

As in all of his new works, the focus here is on art and boldly experimental popular culture alongside the intensity of musical subcultures. Behind this is a certain longing for the radiant, optimistic visions, especially of the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, including the excursions into psychedelia and acid with all the associated improvisational and creative attitudes. They remind us of the opportunity to see the world from a different perspective.

Mark Fridvalszki * 1981 Budapest, lives and works in Berlin