Márton Nemes’ work is influenced by techno subcultures; the explosion and rearrangement of the pictorial field gives a psychedelic character to his paintings that evoke the visual atmosphere of today’s nightclubs. Combining painterly and sculptural elements, his multimedia installations create a hypnotic spatial dynamic that propels the viewer from the harshness of the real world into a fluid, dizzying colour field.

For the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, the project was designed by Nemes as an immersive, painting-based Gesamtkunstwerk that emphasizes the expansion of the genre of painting, its extension to other media, a process that has become more and more characteristic of the artist’s practice. In his earlier works, Nemes approached rave culture from an escapist perspective, and formulated the idea of freeing oneself from hopeless, depressive situations by visual means. The ensemble displayed in the pavilion now marks a turning point: defiance of reality is replaced by a transcendental experience, and the vibrancy of techno is transformed into a Zen resonance.

The term techno also refers to techné and technological art; the fusion of industrial technologies and materials with a more conventional approach unfolds as a painting-object, an installation or a moving painterly environment. Laser-cut steel, car paint, enamelled steel plate, projection, DMX-lights, speakers and coloured fans are the tools Nemes integrates in his practice in order to reinterpret the palette of painting. By doing so, he creates a multisensory environment: its optical, acoustic and haptic content unfolds through the combined effects of light, colour, movement and sound.

The exhibition is structured in three main parts that are meant to be fully understood, perceived and experienced when the visitor stands in the middle of the pavilion, the courtyard that links all spaces. This position – to be in the middle – carries a symbolic meaning, it is both physical and ontological. In an era of polarized societal phenomena that lack or completely exclude nuances, the project conveys a humanistic message that advocates for openness and tolerance.