Tamás Varga:

THE HANDS OF THE DEAD

In remembrance of my father, József Varga (1943-1974)

(Gallery of Cloisters of the National Dance Theatre

Budapest, I. [Buda Castle], Színház str. 1-3.

2009.02.19. - 2009.03.15.

The exhibition opened by Avi Danziger rabbi)

                    "The hands of the dead reach out of the grave

                     And the glassy eyes are accusing.

                    Can it be forgiven that I am alive,

                    That my lips are smooth and my heart is still warm?"

                                                                           /Tamás Simon/

Tamás Varga is an artist of outsider art, and has never undertaken formal study of art or photography. Since 1999, when he first took a reflex camera in his hands he has always travelled his own path, independent of the established mainstream. This exhibition of his also requires a “picture reading” method different from the customary.

Passing away is just as much part of human life as birth. Death is the unbearable secret that petrifies the human heart. It is a fundamental and definitive change. Motion turns to immobility and the pulsation of life to silence. The belief in the difference between body and soul - according to which the soul lives on after the death of the body and its path continues in an existence outside time - helps to accept the unacceptable experience of death.

The cemetery is a place for human emotions, mourning and tears, a place of final rest and absolution. "I like cemeteries" says Tamás Varga. "They are quiet nooks with little body and much soul. When I am tired of people I step into a graveyard, the only place in town that radiates peace. As a tiny speck in infinity I keep tasting the symbiosis of stones, nature and death."

                                                                                                                                                                            János Eifert

                                                                                                                                                                           former president of

                                                                                                                                                                         Association of Hungarian Photographers