The photo series Space (2017-2020) is the latest work by Balázs Deim, completed in 2019. The project, which connects the realms of sensual perception, imagination and personal memories, re-evaluates everyday objects and places in such a way that they appear as evidence of space travels. At the same time, it does not hide the signs of everydayness and the original functions of the objects. Thus, the images of space created out of simple objects are re-contextualized as a documentation of a private, internal journey.

The project combines the notion of játék (meaning: playing, game, toy) with the phenomena of nostalgia and wanderlust. The images activate multiple interpretative layers of the concept ranging from toys, the act of playing and the child’s universe to the creative process of experimentation, which is highly characteristic to Balázs Deim’s works. On the one hand, the photos point towards infinity with the child’s curiosity to the universe and the permanent desire to discover the unknown. On the other hand, they turn towards the past with nostalgia, from where moments and places deeply buried in the subconscious reveal themselves, such as the real or imagined memory of a playground, an old magazine’s image or a newsreel from the Cold War era. Some pictures serve as a tribute to photographers who influenced Balázs Deim’s perspective. Pieces of the present selection marked with the subtitle “flashback” quote work by Imre Drégely and Gábor Kerekes.