The sewing machine needle goes up and down at a steady pace. The work finished is observed, with equal persistence, by a sliding camera of the Friend of the Moon video. The close look at fabrics and their structure is typical of Tania Nikulina’s work.

Péter Puklus (1980) shows a selection of his newest works adapted to the space of Trafó Gallery. Puklus, born in Cluj-Napoca, graduated at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, is a pioneer figure of his generation which started experimenting with the intersections of photography, sculpture and installation-art. It is also part of his multi-layered artistic agenda to publish his photo-series in different artist book formats.

Barna Péli as a sculptor is highly committed to anthropocentrism, where his composition of figures as active, ethical agents are always articulated in relation to interpersonal nexus or group dynamics. The body horror-esque aesthetics represents the power situation within these relations, which in an absence of a well-designed surface unveil the ugliness of reality as it is.

With this exhibition centred around counter-hegemonic images of manhood Brousil and Puklus enter an imaginary battlefield. Raising questions about the nature of the modern man, which is the leitmotiv of the show, is general on the one hand, while on the other it is anchored in the personal experience of the artists.

Rummaging in the old trousers, faded chess. Dark stains on the pockets hem after years and years of sweaty hands. A rectangle of sugar-stuck nuts crumbles in the plastic wrap. Eating too much, too much junk. Buying low-calories frozen food. I weigh myself naked in the morning, right after taking a shit.