PINTÉR, Dia

Budapest, 1989

Inerasable memory is a crucial notion in the case of Dia Pintér's work. Shards of memory, image fragments and segments of space appear in her images. These cannot be depicted or decoded directly. Painting is, of course, always a zone where depiction takes place – here, however, it is not a mathematical process but rather a multidimensional one. The evocative nature of the utilised motifs, the emotive power of colours, the unity of forms, the elaboration of complex spatial constellations, and the connections stemming from associative patterns between words and work processes play a central role in her work. The primary formal unit of representation in Pintér's case is the stripe or the paper band. These stripes fall in a rain-like fashion, delineating shapes or gathering in puddles mirroring various motifs. Pintér searches for transition zones leading to past-tense perceptions. She is not looking for one given method or a magic spell through which this transition might occur: she seems to be seeking the direction with closed eyes. As such, there is no method in how she constructs her artworks. In a world where everything seems to lend itself to verbalisation and interpretation, the painter escapes forwards, exiting this foreseeable and calculable realm. She does not surrender to emotional painting: her work cannot be interpreted as lyrical. The viewer follows the painter's pictorial steps, looking for reference points and larger structures, discarding these soon. It is almost as if she could establish a state of levitation and grasp the gaze in this inner space. A space that does not seem homely and from which all memories escape. The viewers look back into the past through this space; their nostalgia is awakened only to disintegrate. József Mélyi