Czabán György's new photo exhibition at Mai Manó Ház is basically an entertaining way of pointing out the inside out nature of Budapestian days. Street art, irony and a certain kind of grotesque dominate the pictures, which function as a looking-glass. A new way of looking at the city that you thought you knew.
There are different ways to take photos of a city: one of them is when through photography, you transform everything into geometrical forms - in this case, it feels like the city is made up of walls, rails and fences; everything is in it's right place, parallel, perpendicular to the surrounding enviroment.
But what happens, when the photographer is driven by his/her social sensitivity? When his/her photos start to function as a mirror, reflecting the emptiness, the sadness of a city? Czabán György's photo exhibition left us feeling empty and sad, but also made us think about the city we live in and how we relate to it and it's street arts. The photos are dominated by the urge of saying something about the urban emptiness, the dark side of Budapest.
Budapest From Bartók To Banksy lies somewhere between the two: realism and geometrical forms are important, but it is still easily accessible and understandable for everybody. It talks about important topics, but always without taking things too seriously - a special sense of humour is always there. Well-known places, well-known faces - there is no Budapest with them, just like there is no London without Banksy's graffities.
Czabán György is not only a photographer, but also director, writer, DJ, radioman and he regularly organises jazz concerts at A38. His exhibitions serves as an entry to the hidden, mystique world of Budapestianstreetart. "On the one hand, this special photography collection incorporates images born out of framing the juxtaposition of the casual; on the other hand, it encompasses messages from unknown senders left in public spaces for the other, for others. It is embraced by the poetics of city life, combined with those five steps on the road that lead nowhere to the colorful airships floating above the sky and clouds of the huge firewall." - says the curator of the exhibition, Gabriella Csizek.
