Budapest, Hungary, 1974
Denes Farkas lives and works in Tallin, Estonia. Dénes Farkas arrived in Estonia seventeen years ago, where he studied Printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2001), and there continued his studies, receiving a Masters in Media Arts and Photography in 2003. He has worked as Associate Photography Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts and as Programme Manager at the Hungarian Institute in Tallinn, Estonia. He has twice received the Annual Prize of the Estonian Cultural Endowments Foundation for Fine and Applied Arts (2010-2013). His works feature in the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia, Hungarian National Gallery, Leal Rios Foundation Lisbon, as well as in private collections internationally, in Europe, Asia, USA and Columbia.
He has exhibited extensively in Estonia and across Europe. In 2017, the work “How-to-calm-yourself-after-seeing-a-dead-body Techniques” curated by Ingrid Ruudi, was exhibited in the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM). In 2015 with the work “Some Sorts of Silences” he took part in 7th Turku Biennial in Finland, curated by Milla-Kariina Oja. In 2014, the project Evident in Advance, was exhibited in the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn (Estonia). In 2013, he was the Estonian representative at the 55th Venice Biennale, with his work “Evident in Advance”, curated by Adam Budak.
His works draw from the tradition of conceptualism. His handling of material, his use of analogue technology and retro aesthetic – in the digital age – leaves a soft, nostalgic impression. The artist’s use of Laconic and pictorial language refers to a Minimalist tradition. Farkas is an artist that willingly embraces potential failure as an essential part of the communicative process, and thus, whose playful attitude towards the fragile and uncertain processes of language, communication and understanding, is both tentative and fearless. His works explore the limits, loops and elusiveness of language, the im/possibilities of translation and the logic of infinite re-translations.