The installation “Beauty was a Savage Garden” was presented as part of the group exhibition “Cockaigne” at Galeria Arsenał.

“The inspiration for this landscape-like site-specific installation was Hany Istók, a child found in the Hanság marshes in 1749, who features in many Hungarian legends. The few surviving records indicate that the naked boy, who could not speak, was perfectly at home in the aquatic world around the lake. He could swim like a fish and ate only grass, raw fish, and frogs. Fishermen took him to Kapuvár Castle, where the “wild” eight-year-old boy was dressed and baptized. Attempts were made to teach him to speak, but without success. The circumstances of the boy’s later disappearance remain as mysterious as his origins. According to the most popular version of the story, Hany Istók escaped his cruel “guardians” by jumping into the water and returning to the world from which he came. Over time, more fantastic descriptions appeared, in which he became a fish-man, a frog-boy, an amphibious child, a half-animal with a body covered in scales. The legend can be read as a story of a return to nature, in which Hanság becomes a new paradise. By shedding his clothes, the hero regains his lost identity. Karina Mendreczky and Katalin Kortman Járay fill the space with sculptures of plants and hybrid human-plant figures. Responding to the contemporary climate catastrophe, the artists create a fantastical setting that questions the division between the civilized and the barbaric.”

Photos courtesy of Arsenal Gallery, Białystok. Some images have been cropped for online presentation.