This Untamed 
Field I Know Well
2022

MŰTŐ is an independent, artist-run platform and collective founded in Budapest in 2016. Its mission is to provide young artists with a physical space in which to explore new forms of creation. The community is organised with a critical curatorial approach and according to the democratic principles of DIY [do it yourself] culture. The group’s foundation was a response to the stifling atmosphere of the institutional art system, the difficulties facing emerging artists, and the lack of dialogue, offering an alternative to these conditions.

In the years since its inception, this exhibition marks the first occasion on which the collective has not only worked together in the shared framework of exhibitions, performances and music events, but also created work collaboratively as eight individual members. I Know This Wild Field is therefore both an experiment and a complex work of art: an act of self-definition, exploring different approaches to the relationship between the individual and the community.

Collectives are most often formed to reinforce one another, countering the pressures of individualism and isolation. At the same time, it is significant that for decades there has been a growing demand for connection within communities. The emergence of large-scale, collaborative artistic practices extends beyond individual needs and should also be understood as a response to broader social issues. With this exhibition, MŰTŐ reflects on current possibilities for thinking about community. It approaches community as a being, an entity, whose operation can be described through the metaphor of the body. Drawing on the theory of Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito, and examining community through the analogy of immunity, the exhibition models a system which, instead of excessive self-immunisation – the complete closure of the community – experiments with an open immune system, that is, the expansion of community itself. This approach does not shut out external impulses and influences, which could risk self-destruction, but rather opens towards them, at times even integrating them. In this way, the community that emerges is an open system, constantly evolving and actively shaping its environment.

MŰTŐ: Agg Lili, Balázs Nikolett, Barta Bence, Kókai Zsófia, M. Kállai Kata, Pálhegyi Flóra, Romhány Veronika, Teplán Nóra.

In the group’s 6-year history, this exhibition is the first where the eight members not only work together in a collectively created scene – in exhibitions, performances, and music events – but also, literally, create together.

This Untamed Field I Know Well is, then, both an experiment and a complex work of art: an attempt at self-definition that explores the boundaries and connections between the individual and the community. The works on display contrast the different operating mechanisms of community and collaboration and individual motivations. The exhibitors – members of MŰTŐ group – want to showcase collaborative work as a viable alternative but are at the same time conscious of its inherent difficulties, the uncovering of which also played an important role in the project.

The exhibition is the result of an intensive, collective creative process that explored the tensions between social man/woman and the artist’s ego. As a community of individuals with individual careers, MŰTŐ uses methods that enable the creation of works of art in a collective way, from the birth of an idea to its realization. The goal is to step out of the comfort zone of personal creativity, to experiment with the blurring of boundaries of artistic identity, and to experience, through collaborative work and with all its triumphs and hardships, an alternative way of creation. Works and installations evolved from ideas from conversations and speak through a plethora of mediums, representing a common denominator among the members. With the project, the group aims to show the potential and limitations of community and collective creative work through the mirror of a self-centered society.

Often, collectives are formed to empower their members – to counteract individualism and alienation. We must, however, not overlook the fact that the past decades have seen a growing need for a sense of community and that the increasing number of collaborative art projects hints at reasons that go beyond individual needs, which must also be seen as a reaction to social issues. The limited possibilities of the conservative cultural policies of recent years and the pandemic have only reinforced this tendency.

A community can be seen as a creature, an entity, whose functions can be described through the metaphor of the body. Using the ideas of Italian philosopher and theorist Roberto Esposito and exploring community through the concept of immunity, the exhibition is a system model where excessive self-immunization, a hermetically sealed-off community, is replaced with an open immune system – a community that is expanding. This theory, rather than closing off the community to outside impulses and influences, and risking self-destruction, opens its borders too, or even integrates, these stimuli. The resulting community is, then, an open system that constantly changes, changing, in turn, its environment.

1. Sound Stream

In order to visually map networking, MŰTŐ interviewed groups, artists, and members of organizers’ communities with whom it has already collaborated in the past. They were asked about their attitudes towards and experience of individual and collective collaboration: in what ways are their identities shaped by creative or operative collaborations; do friendships influence the creative process; how responsible do they feel for a group’s future?

Their answers fuse and blend, creating a sound matrix, the voice of a pseudo-character, that fills and connects the rooms and links the abstract installations to specific insights. Drawing on the theme of the search for a source, the sound stream merges with atmospheric noises produced by the presence of members and guides visitors from the first room to the last.

2. First Room – Clints and Grykes

Belonging is a basic human need; however, differences between the interests of a group and of the individual soon become evident. In order to become functional members of a community, we need to sync up our thought structures with those of others. These elements serve as guides for finding both the ideal of community and a sense of belonging. Just as we are transformed by this system, so too is the system itself shaped and formed by members of the community. This dynamic is mirrored in our walk through the spaces, structured by PVC curtains, and in our cooperation with other visitors.

Our thought and perception are based on continuous and compulsive systematization. Our categories vary with our points of view which, in turn, also change with new influences to varying degrees. As part of a community, we are constantly faced with the views of others, which inevitably leads to an all-consuming flood of introspection. Floating freely around in “nothing” is, however, only momentary – immediately, new categories are established, which, again, are subject to change. The video installation of the flooding and restructuring of the land structure created by the members of MŰTŐ captures this process.

3. Second Room – Nerve Field

The installation shows the organic and labyrinthine systems of networks. It touches upon the networked nature of communities by portraying the reciprocal processes of connection and separation; it also alludes to the organism’s ability to convey information and share knowledge – essential functions of any community – on a cellular level.

Because of the black, sandy, muddy surface of the tangles, the installation looks both alive, giving off the impression of a living organism, and like charred, dead remains, which raises the question of contradictions inherent to systems. The system is interrupted at several places by junctions, corrupting the unity of the organism like pus-filled wounds, which are indicative of an external breach (of a virus) in the system.

4. Third Room – Magnetic Field

This group of works first started out at an intensive four-day workshop and later turned into a flow-like creative/reflective exercise, eventually resulting in pieces, “DNAs,” unique to each group member. These are bundles of data that have been brought together both physically and virtually, in a 3D animation.

There are dozens of fist-size, corresponding, biomorphic clay sculptures in the room, each coupled by a member with a concept or emotion in the video, on a scale of positive to negative emotions and within a specific set of concepts. These then converge in a morphing animation, a kind of data visualization, where the scanned images of objects create subjective spirals, and DNA sequences, before merging into each other according to set criteria. Morphing refers to this merging together and is also a play on French philosopher Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity. With the installation in this room, then, MŰTŐ members experiment with how, through working with a specific material (be it, as with Malabou, consciousness, or the brain), creative attention can be directed at the inner dynamics of the group. What kind of objects are created when an artistic expression is a form of expressing opinions? How can this interpersonal emotional and artistic web of relations be quantified and shown artistically? How can the group’s manifesto and individual tensions and relations be related to each other and owned?

 

5. Fourth Room – Limestone Pavement

With this room, we reach the end of our journey – the source, or the well. The well appears here as a scene of social life and as a symbol of public goods. By “public good” we generally mean something that cannot be appropriated and, ideally, occurs naturally and abundantly. For MŰTŐ, free thought, creativity, making art, and culture (where it is in the public interest that it be not fenced off and appropriated) are such goods. The public well was chosen as a symbol because access to life-giving water has drawn people together, who are then able to connect with each other, since the dawn of civilization.

The source stands for the possibilities for the community which, ideally, are constantly renewed. In a functioning community, this is achieved in an organic, yet controlled (adhering to the rules of the community), manner; consequently, both organic and structured experiences were given emphasis during the process of collaborative creation. Although both symbols are present in the installation, they are physically separated, since the source belongs more to the idea itself, and the well, to accessibility. The group went through the questions concerning the individual concepts and, exploring the positions and roles of the MŰTŐ community, created the structure of the work. Finally, impressions from their conversations were turned into the materials, textures, and gestures of the installation.