Illuminating Light: Hungary at the Venice Biennale By Alexandra Tobia The 2011 Venice Biennale bears the title

ILLUMINATIONS. It also evokes

ILLUMINATIONS, suggests the enlightening, something that makes something else understandable and simultaneously creates a eureka experience. inspire or to make wonderful. wonder, where to illuminations means literally to light up, which can mean to Obviously, Illuminations has very strong tie to perception, and from perception it has a link to sight and optics. Lastly, the title ILLUMINATIONS passionately points to the countries represented at the Biennale and the art they contribute. Of the 26 national pavilions situated in the Giardini at Biennale this summer, the Hungarian Pavilion shines forth with the most illuminating light. The Hungarian Pavilion features a multi-element, immersive work, entitled, Crash-Passive Interview by artist Hajnal Nemeth. Upon entering the pavilion, the viewer confronts an intense, large-print poem written out on EU car plates. The car plates sit high on the back wall of an open courtyard. The poem queries, Are you coming? Are you coming across the divide? Are you coming to me? Will it be marvelous? Probing questions regarding something still nebulous to the viewer. To the left entrance sits a room flooded with blaring red light, the results of daylight filtering through a tinted glass wall. It is optically shocking; the light is nearly impossible to adjust your eyes. Placed in the center of the room is a totaled car frightening. The room is amplified with a soundtrack of operatic exchanges that use yes or no questions to each tell a different story surrounding a same event, a car crashing. The opera is tremendous and religious in sound. In all senses of the word, Crash-Passive Interview is illuminating. The work literally plays with light. As the light is obstacle to clear and trustworthy vision it illuminates another sense- hearing. The sound in the room is intense, as might be typical of a car crash. This illuminates experience. Although the pavilion is sparse, entire piece feels frighteningly chaotic. The disparity between the frenzied

experience and austere compositional reality highlights a kind of illuminating artistry. Most significantly, however, Crash-Passive Interview illuminates something of its nation state. The insistent questioning of the poem at the beginning of the pavilion it suggests a political essence. The car plates on which the poem is written evoke the borders around, and the lack of borders within, the European Union. Questions like, Are you coming across the divide? Will it be marvelous? acutely relate to the powerful allure EU membership holds for many nation states. That this installation regards a devastating car crash, the question of the Hungarian relationship with the EU nags at the viewer. Regardless of the viewers familiarity with Hungarian politics, Crash-Passive Interview illuminates a particular aspect of Hungarian political sentiment and truly embodies the Illumi-Nation. The Hungarian Pavilion, in comparison to many other pavilions, has a substantial message, speaks meaningfully about its country, fearlessly confronts the viewer, and exhibits a deep artistic sophistication. Wolfgang Schirmacher, a German media philosopher, postulates that, Aesthetics simultaneously perceive success and failure. The aesthetics of the Hungarian Pavilion are so crisp that its fulfillment is the task of illumination is proportionally successful.