Dániel Kovalovszky MEMORY FACTORY   Opening remarks by András Jolsvai, journalist Curator: Tamás Dezsõ Open to the public: 24. September – 31. October 2009. Every weekdays: 14.00 – 19.00 Weekend: 11.00 – 19.00

„...I had noticed earlier (for instance in his portraits of elderly actors), the wisdom, affection and understanding Dániel Kovalovszky demonstrates in handling the passage of time. He is aware of the grotesque nature and all the pain, indeed the tragedy of this phenomenon, but he is not harsh or judgemental. I think this is a special gift from heaven and very rare at his age. Someone so young does not count the years, but discounts any thought of mortality. And has no mercy for those who are guilty of this offence. [...]

It seems that in Csepel time has stood still. It was a proud industrial town (alright, let us call it a district, it is of no importance) and history suddenly and cruelly pulled the carpet out from under it. The red carpet, if I may be allowed such irony. Up to that time, the locals had had a hard struggle to survive in the socialist scenery of the sixties, but they had taken a certain understandable pride in their existence. This pride was destroyed in a second and anyone able to escape did so wherever they could.

Only the losers, who had nowhere to run to, remained. They made their last stand relying on their past and they are waiting with clenched teeth for something to happen. And it is as if the whole town was doing exactly this at the moment.

It is this moment that Dániel Kovalovszky’s unusual still photographs document. A world which time left behind in such a way that it seems to have stood still. The participants in the May 1st chess contest are dressed exactly the same way they were thirty years ago. There is the same fast food stall at the lido as in the past. The red star on the fence of the iron works, the street sign for Rakéta (Sputnik) Street and the Russian Moskvich car with its canvas cover. But of course this world is not like the dream of Sleeping Beauty, it is an irreversible process. Everything is going rusty, decaying, ageing, vanishing, everything is slowly fading away.

That is to say that the photographer, just like post-modern novelists, is working on two timescales. The main impression is one of time passing and the feeling of loss. The mechanical parts destined to perish, the faded walls, the enlarged details all show this in sharp focus, time that turns to dust in our hands.

Wisdom, knowledge and technique are not enough to achieve this.

It requires talent.”

/András Jolsvai/

Dániel Kovalovszky
[HU, 1979 Budapest]

Jobs:
From 2006 free lanced photo journalist
2004 - 2006 photo journalist for the daily ‘Népszabadság’
2001 - 2004 works for the magazine ’Hölgyvilág’

Education:
2000 - 2001 Training course at Association of Hungarian Journalists, Photo Journalist
1998 - 2000 Photography studies at Trade High School No 6.

Awards:
2008 ’Junior Prima’ Prize
2008 Photography Grant of the Pro Cultura Fund of Municipality of Budapest
2008 65th POYi - Pictures of the Year International Competition, 3rd place in Newspaper
Division/ Portrait Story category
2006 - 2008 Hungarian State Photography Grant ’József Pécsi’
2006 63th POYi, Second Place in Newspaper Division/ Feature Picture Story category
2006 Awarded 1st place at Hungarian Press Photography Competition, Category Portrait Series
2006 Awarded 2st place at Hungarian Press Photography Competition, Category Society Review
2005 Awarded 1st place at Hungarian Press Photography Competition, Category Society Review
2004 Grant of the Hungarian Press Photography Fund, Photo Essay Division
2004 Grantee of the National Cultural Fund Photography College
2000 Awarded 3rd place at Hungarian Press Photography Competition, Category Society Review

Individual exhibitions:
2007 Gallery Raiffeisen Bank, Budapest
2005 Gödör Club, Budapest

Group exhibitions:
2008 Present Continuous I-IV, Hungarian House of Photography
2007 Present Continuous III. at Budapest Gallery, organized by the Hungarian House of
Photography
2006 Months of Photography, Krakow (PL)
2000 – 2006 Hungarian Press Photography Competition annual exhibitions

Memberships:
Studio of Young Photographers
Association of Hungarian Photographers