Mythological Experience, 2010
Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Paper, 100 x 70 cm
A wisp of fog drifts toward a young woman: her hair pinned up, freckles, subtle makeup, a floral dress. Who is this woman, and what is this encounter about? Is this a spiritualist séance, as we know them from photographs of the late 19th century? Or a meteorological phenomenon, a dry ice party? The title designates the staging as a mythological experience. An experience between a young woman and a mist-like formation. Jupiter knew how to transform himself into all manner of forms to get close to the object of his desire—that is, to seduce a woman. With the young and beautiful Jove, he tried to ensnare her in the form of mist. Istvan Balogh stages a modern variation of the ancient story of Jupiter and Jove in the studio. The inspiration for these works came from Antonio da Correggio’s painting “Jupiter and Jove,” 1531/32. In the painting, the woman is depicted in a back view; a misty embrace wraps around her hips, and she seems to gaze upward in rapture. Jupiter’s approach is not portrayed in 2011 as a crude advance, but rather as a tender, almost immaterial seduction. Here he envelops her, whispering something in her ear—whereupon she will likely blush soon.
Hanspeter Portmann, 2011, Verein für Originalgrafik, Zurich
