LEÍRÁS / DESCROPTION

The short film “/NOT2B” won the Best Art Film award at the 2022 Experimental Festival.

Or not to be.
The project is based on the core idea of the well-known Hamlet monologue, which unravels the philosophical question between Being and Not Being.

To protect myself from the outside world.
Man still longs to get out of a sea of troubles and this aspiration is shown by him taking arms against them which he sees as the cause of his misfortune. The Body itself is such a slings and arrows: the aggressiveness of gender, race, social determinations and interactions. The man of today still wants to shuffle off this mortal coil, his own flesh, and is constantly looking for new forms through which he can ward off the arrows of the outside world, to keep out the interventions and judgments that come from outside. This fear leads to loneliness and isolation.

Getting out of the body. Stripping off everything that makes you different from others. All character, nation and gender, skin, colour, flesh. Everything.

To reach the abstract end Singularity.
Man has never been so close to the domination of technology as now. The idea of the singularity is akin to the above aspiration: it seeks to escape physical, organic, decomposing life into inorganic, mechanical bodies. Intellect into the computer, the Body into the Robot. Into stronger, more durable, never decaying matter instead of fragile and fallible earthly existence. The new, never-decomposing body no longer needs to reproduce itself, because it condenses all content into itself, and is therefore the Last Body. Thus, the very process which, through reproduction, is directed towards perfection, that is, evolution itself, Life, becomes causeless: the Brave New World is abstracted into a disorganized, lonely, desolate scenery, in which the Last Being, if it shuts itself off or falls silent, the perfect Non-Existence occurs, in which no reflection is necessary, existence is inorganic, unreflected, dark, and thus, in fact, since there is no consciousness to reflect it, Non-Existence itself.

Not to be. Is it possible not to be?
The project begins in this state, when the above desired state has occurred. The World has been abstracted into a Color, reduced to the basic elements of Being. Humanity, previously numbering billions of individuals, endowed with particular faces, characters, nations, histories, emotions, has been abstracted into a SINGLE Skeleton, devoid of these characteristics, best expressed by the Skeleton as the perfect form of the Body, devoid of all “fleshly” organic elements. This “skeleton” seeks a new enclosing form of the “new body” that is inorganic, transparent, non-degradable, yet protective and most expressive of its singularity, in contrast to the fragile and “fussy” flesh. The Perfect Skeleton: an outer armor protecting an inner shell, the perfect form of the desired Non-Existence.

Then come the dreams of the dread of something after death, The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn No traveller returns. We now look behind the scenes of Non-Existence, where only one body remains of what was once Man, and the Last is about to surrender to Non-Existence.

Six phases: six designs.
The Last Skeleton That Remains of Man is represented by the skeleton who makes the last presentation of the final six garments, the versions of the exoskeleton in which he attains his final form, to give himself to Non-Existence by putting on the final form, enter the final state of Death and enclose himself in his external skeletons.To give the final answer: not to be.
The setting of the “last stage” can be understood as a place consecrated to Non-Existence. The “stage” is drenched in water and oil, the surroundings are dark, the spectators’ chairs are empty. The point of the video performance is to keep the viewer as far away as possible from the events, which are also rather states, present in their own rigidity, passive “endless loops” in parallel. In this, six basic positions, six “phases” or “states” are fixed.

Does non-existence exist? Can the paradox be resolved?
Existence in Non-Existence is a paradox. As much as we long and yearn for the tranquility of Non-Existence as our reward, we cannot stop the cycle of Life. This is the ultimate message of the project, arrived at through hidden signs and events unfolding imperceptibly in the background of the Play. The final triumph of Nature and Life is reaped only in the last scene, until then everything is built up “according to plan” as the final triumph of Death, fulfilling the desired end, leading to the attainment of the Final Form and then to the Final Passing. Through the six phases of the passing away, the elements of Life appear.
Although seemingly separate from each other and providing a backdrop to the events, the Performance is sufficiently immersive, it is revealed through its observation that they interact with each other and setting in motion the birth of the New Life. The ultimate form of Non-Existence thus becomes a plaything of Life: a holding vessel, a “pot” if you like, for the new life that is being sprouted. So, at the end of a tremendous work and effort, the 4 Elements will ultimately triumph and sweep over Man’s calculations.

Iconography
The number six, which recurs during the performance of The Last Skeleton, is not a coincidence, since what we see is in fact a reference to a 15th century allegory, the danse macabre, which itself, based on a now lost fresco, became a favourite theme of late medieval and early Renaissance folk plays and mystery plays, and thus appeared in a wide variety of artistic genres, from opera to painting, music and sculpture. In this 21st century ‘danse macabre’, the visual art of our time, video art, installation, fashion shows, interior design, fashion design, design, theatre, film and music are combined with allegorical installations to create a synthesis of art. The whole project will also be recorded in a motion, film/stage form and in a stable form, as a gallery visual art exhibition installation.
Danse Macabre is originally composed of dead people or personifications of death, who summon representatives from all walks of life to dance straight to the grave. The six costumes loosely correspond to the supporting characters of the Dance Macabre: Pope, Emperor, King, Child and Worker, and the sixth, Woman. The skull in the last scene also evokes an old iconography: memento mori, reminding people of the fragility of their lives and how vain are the glories of life on earth.
The Danse Macabre was also originally literary, and records show that it was a painted version of a sermon, composed in the cemetery of St. Ince in Paris between 1424 and 1425. Today, both the original text and the original image have been lost, but versions and variations of the text and image live on, and its basic idea is still relevant and eternal. The /NOT2B project is therefore a complex reimagining of this old story, based on literary foundations such as the Hamlet monologue, also inspired by late medieval allegory, and the fears, desires and questions that are a daily concern for 21st century man.

Eszter Polyak
Instead of the surface, Eszter Polyák puts the glitter of darkness on the catwalk. Her collections stem from the darkness that most of us are afraid to face. She feeds off the culture of the outsider. As a former costume designer for the Capital Circus of Budapest, effective solutions are essential to her style. Sometimes she smuggles animal elements into her costumes – she locks corpses of flies into the eternal reality of synthetic resin buttons, or decorates skirts with neon chicken feet – and at other times she completely disconnects from our reality and presents us with androgynous androids. The pieces she designs may be familiar from short films and theater plays. Her style is influenced by the American drag queen culture, Alexander McQueen and the world of aliens, all in a way that only a young Hungarian designer can experience.
The /NOT2B collection pushes the boundaries of “fashion design”, with its unique models creating the phenomenon of a static and dynamic fashion show/exhibition, all made from recycled materials. Embroidery – a symbol of the richness in Hungarian culture – crystals – an international element of sophisticated taste – and recycled plastics – the ultimate solution – meet in an post-fashion world. Instead of human hands, the embroidery is made by a laser cutter from recycled plastic that has lived thousands of lives. Crystals fusing into the plastic, shimmering, add a new dimension to this surprising combination, taking the relationship between the meeting materials and forms to a higher level. The unique space installations were designed by Diána Alchhabi.