We look forward to welcoming all interested parties to the exhibition of visual artist Herbert Anikó aka Haniko titled „Algagreen silence blooms inside me” in the Karinthy Salon. The exhibition will be opened by art journalist Nóra Winkler on September 3, 2024 (Tuesday) at 6 p.m.

The curator of the exhibition is Annamária Szabó.

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„In idle moments, I often use my imagination to generate stories based on sundry tidbits of scientific information. Some swallows survive the winter in the reeds, for instance, that then turn into fish and shells. I can also imagine seaweed conquering the sky in the form of swallows, or whispering forgotten stories between the frozen layers. At the water’s edge or on the snow-capped peaks, we do the same, in effect, when searching for treasures with our fairy-tale magical device, the sea leash.”

In Haniko’s works, figural and abstract forms float in a state of continuous metamorphosis. These biomorphic creatures are layered on top of each other like hidden rivers, forming colonies that weave together realms of animate and inanimate, human and non-human, and animal and plant.

In the present exhibition, the artist continues her art-based research, which began with last year’s duo exhibition entitled „The weight of the lake,” where Haniko translated the work of the hydrobiologist-limnologist Olga Sebestyén (1891–1986) on the wildlife of Balaton into her brand of visual language. Upon further investigation, Haniko came across the research and heritage of another scientist as well: algologist Erzsébet Kol (1897–1980), inventory maker of snow and ice algae.

In essence, Haniko transforms the discoveries of these two researchers and their social lives as women into visual landscapes by way of collage-cartography, while making the ’algae ambivalence’ of the ecological crisis graspable for the visitor through fabulation. By weaving a visual story and thereby granting a distinct perspective, Haniko’s work helps us catching our breath amidst the ecological, social and mental confusion of our days – together with the algae, as one being.

Annamária Szabó

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Music: Noémo
Motion picture: Géza Vadas
Co-creators: Vinczemill, Niki Szakács, Faék Műhely

The research was assisted by the Botanical Library of the Hungarian Museum of Natural Sciences and by the staff of the Balaton Limnological Research Institute.

The title of the exhibition is a quote from Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen’s Sea Letters. Publisher Ø, 2023.

The exhibition can be viewed during the opening hours of the Karinthy Salon (Monday to Friday between 12:00 and 18:00) until October 3.

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Herbert Aniko aka Haniko, visual artist, graduated in 2011 from the Department of Visual Arts of the Eszterházy Károly University in Eger. Her works can be found in Hungarian public collections and even in the UNESCO collection. The main inspiration of her art, which experiments with various genres, is nature and the natural environment, the ineluctable presence of which in everyday life offers the subject that she translates into a visual language. Sustainability and recycling play a decisive role in both her everyday life and her creative approach. Her art is characterized by pure and fine workmanship instilled in a deep personal tone, and as a result her works include large-scale watercolors, small collages, installations and objects made of paper and other natural materials, found objects. Her goal is to connect with as many art forms as possible and to bring her works to various locations and audiences, such as the Walter Rózsi Villa, the Vinczemill Workshop Gallery’s exhibition space, and the displays and showcases of cultural institutes in Budapest.