PANSEXCEXCOXBOX, 2002
Multimedia public street art installation and performance. Photographic prints, collage elements, paper, felt-tip pen, adhesive, found objects, appropriation art techniques – 2000 x 2000 x 1000 mm
Institute for Computer Science and Automation (SZTAKI), Kirakat Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
PANSEXCEXCOXBOX was a radical and performative manifestation of contemporary public art that unfolded within the glass walls and interior space of Budapest’s Kirakat (Showcase) Gallery. In this work, Bónyai Barbara created a powerful, image-saturated collage that redefined the relationship between image and meaning on the boundary between public urban space and private sphere.
The visual structure of the piece was based on photographs cut from newspapers combined with the artist’s own anime-style drawings, which overlapped and intertwined across the showcase’s walls and floor. This immersive, tactile visual environment functioned as a map of identity and culture, simultaneously reflecting the chaotic network of pop-cultural, scientific, subcultural, and religious iconographies. The metaphor of “teenager and prison walls” evoked the obsession with personal space alongside the intense consumption of collective visual culture.
At the forefront, a cross-shaped composition constructed from photographs was mounted on the showcase glass, serving as a potent symbolic centerpiece. This cross not only referenced religious traditions but also unified the contradictory and fragmented visual reality of the modern world into a single structure. The upper section of the composition juxtaposed a grotesquely white-painted grimacing face, a statue of the Virgin Mary with Child Jesus, and scientific thermal and brain images, thematizing the intersection of the transcendent and the profane, of human existence and technology. The lower arms of the cross incorporated erotic imagery and social documentary photographs, emphasizing the corporeal and socio-spiritual realities of the world.
On the floor, a historical school map was overlaid with collages and crowned by a high-heeled shoe inscribed with the word “Brutal.” This element symbolized the artist’s own position within the Carpathian Basin, while the surrounding images reflected both global and local contexts. As a performative aspect of the installation, Bónyai entered the showcase space and stood wearing the “Brutal” shoe, thereby embodying and dramatizing the personal dimension of the artwork’s conceptual framework. This motif expressed the intertwined nature of personal and collective identity as well as the interrelation of space and place.
Through her own drawings and inscriptions – such as the BKC-HC FIGHT manga collage and the “ZEN HUN” image of a seated zazen monk – Bónyai infused the visual chaos with a distinct voice, critical reflection, and philosophical depth. The combination of diverse media and styles (anime, manga, photographs, drawings) reinforced the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary intersections characteristic of the contemplative cycle spanning 1999–2010.
Conceptually, the work examined the paradox of body and matter: corporeality as the “elemental force” of the world’s material chaos, simultaneously creating and distorting, connecting and fracturing. Here, the motif of the cross functioned not merely as a religious symbol but as an everyday and universal compass surpassing chaos, crystallizing human communication and coexistence. This abstract comic narrated the material substance permeating the world, understood as a philosophical meditation emanating from corporeality and matter.
PANSEXCEXCOXBOX activated the visual toolkit of pop art, yet transcended mere chaotic imagery by drawing attention to global social and cultural crises, the search for individual and collective identity, and the confluence of Eastern and Western philosophical traditions. With this paradoxical yet coherent visual language, the installation articulated the visual, philosophical, and social complexities of the 21st century, blending abstract contemplation with pop-cultural activism.