Using the proportions of classic widescreen cinemascope films, Screen provides a visual metaphor for framing a quasi-void. The work’s poetry and its particular minimalism are combined with the familiar transcendence of Mátrai’s installations. It gives the impression that what appears through the screen is not actually happening before our eyes and has nothing to do with reality, but rather appears to be an imprint of events on the time horizon of an inner landscape, a momentary reflection of unfathomable thoughts. Mátrai’s work reveals a gateway to the unknown, filled with grey mist and eternal light, which functions as a window to the space between dimensions, to the “no man’s land”. The strange sensation of surprise that accompanies the dissolution of matter into absence, the surprise that the work conveys, is so intense and yet so airily light that it seems almost magical. The artist seeks to smuggle magic into the realm of the aesthetic. The penetration through the mysterious veil of mist can only be and will only be complete if the empirical experience is combined with the use of our cognitive senses.

Erik Mátrai’s (1977, Budapest) characteristic, thought-provoking works draw on a variety of religious, scientific, and cultural narratives. His spatial light installations reflect scientific observations on perception and colour vision. A particular component of his radical, increasingly simple, and coherent works is the explication of meanings associated with the concept of time. With this in mind, he tries to find a visual language that can reveal a transcendent, spiritual reality beyond the visible realm and encourage the viewer to have a metaphysical encounter with the work.