Collaboration between Balkon Art Magazine and Lőrinc Borsos.
Editor-in-Chief: István HAJDU
Editors: Veronika HERMANN, László SZÁZADOS
Graphic design: Ferenc ELN
Special thanks to Zsolt MIKLÓSVÖLGYI
DOODLES AND DONGS
Editorial Preface/Postscript to the Special Issue of Balkon Art Magazine Dedicated to Borsos Lőrinc
“Any suggestions on what Indigo should become? Should it fall apart, and everyone exhibit individually, or what? – No It already represents a force field; anything placed within it gains significance.” (Conversation of the INDIGO Group for Mozgó Világ, 1983)
According to American art critic Clement Greenberg, the hallmark of modern artistic styles lies in their perpetual transcendence driven by self-criticism, maintaining a state of constant evolution and development (Modernist Painting, 1961). This self-critical approach aims to refine art, enabling each medium to define itself with greater precision. Avant-garde movements play a crucial role in this process by challenging the conventions of their predecessors and opening new avenues for innovation. Greenberg envisioned this self- critical purification as a historical trajectory where each style reacts to the limitations of the previous one, creating a continuous succession of renewal cycles. Art progresses by questioning its own foundations through a process of purification and self-definition. While Greenberg’s formalist approach has been criticized for neglecting social and cultural contexts...
“(...) Art made its final flight, climbed higher and higher in anvever-decreasing tighter-turning spiral until, with one last erg of freedom, one last dendritic synapse, it disappeared up its own fundamental aperture ... and came out the other side as Art Theory! ... Art Theory pure and simple, words on a page, literature undefiled by vision, flat, flatter, Flattest, a vision invisible, even ineffable, as ineffable as the Angels and the Universal Souls.” (Tom Wolfe: The Painted Word)
...its core principle highlights how self-criticism allows art to redefine itself. This dynamic not only advances the evolution of modern artistic styles but also positions art, by virtue of its autonomous functioning, as a transformative force capable of driving broader cultural and societal innovations.
The artist duo Borsos Lőrinc, active for over two decades in the contemporary Hungarian and Eastern European art scene, embodies this Greenbergian principle of self-critical progression with singular rigor and autonomy. They consistently subject both artistic styles and pivotal milestones of their own oeuvre to revision. In this special issue of Balkon, the multifaceted roles of artists/curators/editors/typographers converge to present an an-archival collection of creative workshop journals, curatorial concepts, visionary notes resembling free verse, in-depth interviews, sketches, exhibition layouts, text fragments, quotations, photographic documentation, internet memes, digital codes, horoscope app advice, notes, and other material. This collection provides a glimpse into Borsos Lőrinc’s most recent work from 2023–2024 and their three major exhibitions (Ferenczy Museum Center – MűvészetMalom, Szentendre; Hessel Museum, New York; acb Gallery, Budapest).
During this period, we witness a distinctive turn in their practice, engaging critically with their politically charged art of the 2010s, subsequent self-mythologizing and self-analytical projects, and speculative techno-gothic worldbuilding efforts. Their work provocatively and subversively invokes a unique notion of revolution—one based not on the destruction of images but on their creative reinterpretation and recontextualization.
The printed issue, featuring a mutable cover design, seeks to harness the forced yet serendipitous alignment of ideas and possibilities—channeling these energies into its favor.
“Good dreams. Bad things. Isn't that the way?”(Jeff Noon: Vurt)