Artists

Levente Leitner

Press release

The cyberpunk conquistador set out to sail across the ocean of contract work and conquer the art world, but the Duracell Bunny ran out of juice. And yet they'd promised him he'd be wading knee-deep in gold if he fought the battles of bosses and employees in the capitalist world. Then it turned out that it was all for nothing that he'd donned the hazmat suits of the overeducated manual laborers, because the radioactive career model burned through the polyethylene faster than sulfuric acid. Around this time last year, Levente Leitner pondered whether artistic work leads to misery or ennobles under the title "Work, Don't Play." It's a matter of perspective and burnout. However, after a change of batteries, Leitner rearranged his argument and proclaimed a new order of priority: play comes before work. If we cast aside the pathos of self-exploitation and the corporate coldness of professional advancement, we can infantilize the market hierarchy to the point where we end up back at hopscotch. One is followed by two, but ten is followed by nine. We must always turn back—or, as the saying goes, "one hop, one skip." Whether we rejoice in this eternal return is, once again, a matter of perspective. Plugged into the outlet and powered by 220V, humor knocks the concept of competition off its pedestal, rolls it around in the mud of the fight, and then displays it in the window like a pretty toy. There is a strange and brief phase in life—which, not coincidentally, coincides with idealistic youth—when the moral ideal of victory seems to be the most important thing. Children and the elderly prefer the prize. Curated by Tímea Fülöp