Attila Csörgö

Attila Csörgö was born in Pécs, Hungary, in 1965 and lives and works in Budapest. 

Attila Csörgö’s work seeks to give form to the invisible laws and structures that govern the world. Fascinated by cosmology, physics, mathematics, and geometry, he conceives his works as visual and playful solutions to complex scientific problems. Through precise calculations, his sculptures, installations, and photographs create captivating optical illusions involving movement and light. They challenge our usual ways of perceiving and question universal concepts such as our relationship to time and space. To create his remarkable visual equations, he builds his own machines, embracing their handmade and improvised quality, much like the sometimes rudimentary tools that have accompanied major scientific discoveries. 

During his residency at Atelier Calder, Csörgö continued his research into optical illusions created through the combination of light and movement. He developed Clock Work (2011), a carefully engineered device that combines a moving geometric structure with image projection. Despite the apparent simplicity of its materials, the work is the result of a highly complex process of reflection and experimentation. For this piece, the artist used a specifically designed form to produce unexpected projections. The object is illuminated by two light sources reflected through telescope mirrors, creating two projected shadows with different shapes: the first symbolizes the passing of time; the second forms the symbol of infinity. At the heart of the work is the encounter between two opposing ideas: movement, which is linked to time, transformation, and change, and geometric forms, which represent stable and static structures created by humans.