Essay about ‘TESSELA’ installation, exploring the intersection of art and perceptual science through object-projection mapping. Utilizing reverse perspective and immersive projection, it challenges visual perception and spatial certainty. The work blends foundations of Op Art, constructivism, and contemporary projection techniques to create a dynamic dialogue between viewer, object, and projection.
Project Description: “A Plague in London” is a mixed-media production situated at the intersection of performative arts and digital scenography. Based on Daniel Defoe’s 1722 archival-style account, the work explores the structural and psychological dynamics of systemic crisis and social isolation. Directed by Kristóf Szabó, the production utilizes Defoe’s text as a conceptual framework to analyze the sociopolitical mechanisms of a pandemic—ranging from institutional denial and the enforcement of urban confinement to the eventual erosion of communal structures.
Visual and Medial Strategy: The production is characterized by a multi-layered visual dramaturgy, where Ivó Kovács’s video art functions as a spatial and temporal mediator. Rather than serving as a purely illustrative background, the digital layer operates as a generative environment that reflects the interiority of the protagonists and the oppressive atmospheric silence of a city under lockdown. The visual components analyze the tension between the historical archival source and contemporary digital aesthetics, translating the 17th-century experience of quarantine into a modern medial discourse. Kovács’s work focuses on the abstraction of architectural boundaries and the visualization of the “Planet of Viruses” concept, examining the human condition through a lens of digital depth and spatial deconstruction.
Credits:
Artistic Direction, Set Design & Sound Dramaturgy: Kristóf Szabó
Video Art: Ivó Kovács
Performance: Maximilian von Mühlen, Boshi Nawa, Lili Oksanen
Source Material: Daniel Defoe: A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
Location: CODE Center of Digital Experiences, Veszprém, Hungary
Opening: February 20, 2026
The screening, which combines the work of several creators, features five Hungarian inventors and scientists: Ernő Rubik, Ányos Jedlik, Albert Szent-Györgyi, Katalin Karikó, and János Neumann.
At the request of Centrum + Colloc Production, I created the section presenting Ernő Rubik’s most famous invention (Rubik’s cube).
Director, art director: Dániel Besnyő, Mátyás Kálmán Editor: Gábor Tarcsay Music: Áron Pfitzner Narration text: Krisztián Nyáry Narrator: Norbert Tuza
Kristóf Szabó / F.A.C.E. Ensemble: Reviernacht – Aus der Liebe gehen (Reviernacht – Leaving Love Behind)
About migration and memory – mixed media theater | Premiere Fri, Nov. 14, 2025
Text, direction: Kristóf Szabó Performance: Natalia Voskoboynikova (singer, voice-art, physical theatre), Ivan Zilli (actor) Narration: Marcus Mies, Julia Karl Video art: Ivó Kovács Stage design objects: Boshi Nawa Sound: New Music, various artists
“What is home? A memory? An ideal? A longing for—what? Have our longings, but also those of our parents and grandparents, shaped us? In surreal images, the mixed-media production Reviernacht combines spoken theater, new music, and visual arts into an artistic experience for all the senses.
The evening invites the audience to take a look at themselves and see what has shaped them: their personal past, their decisions in the present, and their ability to cross boundaries.”
Supported by: Cultural Office of the City of Cologne
Jury Award at iMapp Bucharest – Winners League 2024 – Legacy’
‘Luminbird’
3D/ video: Ivó Kovács Music: József Iszlai
Original ‘Big-wing’ motion courtesy of Derengo Animation, special thanks to La Luz.
Organizers:
Municipality of Bucharest, through CREART – Centre for Creation, Art, and Tradition of Bucharest
iMapp Bucharest – Winners League partner:
Parliament of Romania – Chamber of Deputies
iMapp Bucharest – Winners League International partners:
Chongqing Light Festival – CHINA, Video Mapping Festival Lille – FRANCE, Genius Loci Weimar Festival – GERMANY, 1minute Projection Mapping Competition – JAPAN, Zsolnay Light Festival – HUNGARY, ILO – International Light Festivals Organization
