NEW YORK.-The Hungarian Cultural Center presents today T.error – Your Fear is an External Object, on view through May 2, 2009. Through works by artist from diverse social contexts, the exhibition t.error focuses on the psychological effects of the violence and terror that comes to dominate more and more the media and our daily life. Testing the boundaries between the clichéd image of human violence as mediated by the camera, on the one hand, and its contemporary forms and mental impacts on the other, the exhibition explores the “gray zone” between the constructed and imaginary notions of terror, its mediated image and our real fears.

Since 9/11 it has been discussed in several contexts how violence represented by the media influences our real and fictitious sense of fear, in societies whose outlook today is global. Examining the power and flexibility of the camera-mediated image, the exhibition concentrates on the perception and interpretation of violence and terror filtered through media, and explores to what extent we identify with, or remain resistant to, it. The featured artworks highlight those characteristics of the human condition today that are generated by mediated images of cruelty: fear, paranoia and frustration. They point out that our senses of mental security and social identity are more affected by the image of terror than by any other kind of images in the global media environment. The refined and complex modes of artistic representation echo the characteristics of a more and more intricate and vulnerable society.

The seventeen international artistic positions provide a view of how contemporary artists are dealing with, and relate to, the image of violence in the world of spectacle. Through their works, the exhibition reveals the current correlations between violence, fear and spectacle and challenges our awareness of these by investigating the definition of terror appropriated and alienated by current politics.

The exhibition is curated by Anikó Erdősi and Attila Hetesi. Participating artists: Siemon Allen, Francois Bucher, Juan Manuel Echavarria, Ágnes Eperjesi, Rainer Ganahl, Attila Hetesi, Alia Hassan-Khan, Pia Lindman, Carlos Motta, Renata Poljak, Andrea Schneemeier, Jari Silomaki, Xaviera Simmons, Dezső Szabó, János Sugár, Zsolt Vásárhelyi, Bryan Zanisnik.

This program is part of Extremely Hungary, a yearlong festival showcasing contemporary Hungarian visual, performing, and literary arts in New York and Washington, D.C., throughout 2009. For more information, please visit the festival’s website at www.extremelyhungary.org.