Substratum

“Substratum” is a surface or a material on or from which an organism lives, grows or obtains its nourishment. Zsolt Berszán treats the first layer of the drawing as a substrate, as a surface on which something is deposited or inscribed. Large-scale canvas drawings arise from a multi-layered hatch, with dense accumulations of black amorphous forms trapped in motion. There is a feeling of fluidity almost imperceptible in his works. Organic forms arise from the accumulation of layers and substrates that send to the primordial boom in which the violence of separation has given birth to matter and existence. It is the moment when the conscious and the unconscious have not yet begun, the moment when the human and animal ideas have not yet arisen, where "me" and "the other" are not yet separated (note Julia Kristeva).
It is a disruption of the system, order, a violation of the limits that draws attention to the "fragility of life". The confrontation with the materiality of Berszán's works goes to the idea of the beginning of life, but also to the end, to death. The organic nature of the used materials transmits a sense of strangeness, a mystery exploring the primordial boom, the moment of awareness of the real existence and the rejection of death. It is the fight of the individual against his own dissolution.
Curator: Diana Dochia