LIQUID HORIZONS – 05.08.2026 @ f|x|r

LIQUID HORIZONS

liquid-horizon installation view

text, video: Ivรณ Kovรกcs
music: Jรณzsef Iszlai

Essay about the upcoming immersive video-installation at gallery f|x|r

Synthetic Horizons โ€” On the Ontology of Computed Space

Liquid Horizons investigates the ontology of computed space: the condition in which a digital environment is no longer a representation of physical reality but an autonomous, self-generating field. Its looped panoramic field โ€” built from six visual stations โ€” follows no narrative. The glitch-laden digital threshold, the brutalist concrete labyrinth, the AI-generated biological vascular network, the pure geometric order, the spectral veils and the synthetic horizon do not supersede one another: they coexist as equal aggregates, folding into a single continuous event.

liquid-horizons-brutalist-scene

At the centre of the work stands the question of the oneiric sublimation of trauma. The brutalist scenes of the projection โ€” mirrored concrete stairwells, unfinished stadium interiors, corridors that lead nowhere โ€” carry the architectural imprint of contemporary wartime destruction: an algorithmic monument to the suspended future. Not as documentation but as weightless data-flow โ€” the software does not depict the destruction; it dreams it. Through this digital Traumarbeit, raw concrete is transmuted into a pulsating network, then into pure geometric order, and finally sublimated into the light-saturated data-aesthetics of the computational sublime โ€” without the loop offering redemption. The cycle closes on itself.

liquid-horizons-veins-scene

In Vilรฉm Flusserโ€™s terms of the technical image: the light here does not arrive from sunlight but from global illumination algorithms; the texture of the canvas is definitively replaced by the texture of shader code. Through Gilles Deleuzeโ€™s Le Pli (The Fold): matter is not a static object but an infinitely modulable event โ€” brutalist enclosure and liquid freedom constitute a single topological unity. In Marcos Novakโ€™s liquid architecture: digital space severs its relationship with gravity and function to become pure mathematics and sensation.

liquid-horizons-tesseract-scene

The workโ€™s visual register is determined by three distinct image-making logics in simultaneous operation: real-time rendering (NotchVFX), AI-mediated style transfer (Stable Diffusion), and digitally processed built spaces. There is no sharp boundary between the three layers โ€” and this is itself the workโ€™s argument: in the era of the computed image, the distinction between โ€˜manualโ€™ and โ€˜automaticโ€™ image-making ceases to hold.

liquid-horizons-veils-scene

After the model of Marc Augรฉโ€™s non-places: the projected environment withholds every conventional marker of human orientation. There is no door, no path, no graspable surface. The visitorโ€™s own body remains the sole subjective fixed point within this amorphous, post-anthropocentric data-landscape โ€” whose horizon does not separate sky from earth but unifies them as a data-plane.

liquid-horizons-daylight

360ยฐ immersive video installation โ€” 17สน 20สบ videoloop, โ€” f|x|r galรฉria โ€” 05.08.2026 โ€” location: Vรกr u. 17., Veszprรฉm, Hungary, Europe


luminbird @imapp 2024

Jury Award at iMapp Bucharest โ€“ Winners League 2024 โ€“ Legacy’

Luminbird’

3D/ video: Ivรณ Kovรกcs
Music: Jรณzsef Iszlai

Original ‘Big-wing’ motion courtesy of Derengo Animation, special thanks to La Luz.

Organizers:

Municipality of Bucharest, through CREART โ€“ Centre for Creation, Art, and Tradition of Bucharest

iMapp Bucharest โ€“ Winners League partner:

Parliament of Romania โ€“ Chamber of Deputies

iMapp Bucharest โ€“ Winners League International partners:

Chongqing Light Festival โ€“ CHINA,
Video Mapping Festival Lille โ€“ FRANCE,
Genius Loci Weimar Festival โ€“ GERMANY,
1minute Projection Mapping Competition โ€“ JAPAN,
Zsolnay Light Festival โ€“ HUNGARY,
ILO โ€“ International Light Festivals Organization

hommage รก Malevichโ€™s Black Square

hommage รก Malevichโ€™s Black Square – โ€˜Black Cubeโ€™ by ivo3d.com
(001 iteration, another play with NotchVFX)

‘Black Cube’

SEARCHLIGHT -VR edition

“SEARCHLIGHT | Keresล‘fรฉny” VR 360 HOME video edition

use your mouse or device to navigate in space

SEARCHLIGHT is a site specific light installation –
this is a VR 360 mono shortened version of the original 8 minutes long video-loop.
Installation: KOVรCS Ivรณ
Creative Management: Let it Be! art agency
Organizers: Dรฉri Museum, dr. Istvรกn PUSKรS
Co-organizers: Csokonai Theater, Cรญvis House
Sponsor: National Cultural Fund
Special thanks: Tamรกs Herzceg, Glowing Bulbs
March 5th โ€“ 28th, 2021 at the Lighthouse x Gallery, 67. Piac Street, Debrecen, Hungary

SEARCHLIGHT VR 360 video edition

Due to โ€œCOVID timesโ€, we are releasing an abbreviated video version of the three-projector light installation in a VR360 video format. The exhibition version is also COVID-proof, as the public cannot enter the Lighthouse x gallery. The exhibition reflects this situation. The three walls of the gallery are projected around by the projectors as panoramas so that the perspective of the 3D animation can be understood from the street front window. The perspective view automatically selects the viewer’s position. Since the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti the space of a painting has become and act like a “window” in the European tradition. Originally, the reconciliation of the perspective point of view was used to bring/drag the viewer into the space of the image, but now the window of the image is blocked by the physical glass of the gallery, which is a metaphor for the objective cause – the epidemic situation. Perspective simultaneously eliminates the distance between the viewer and the image, but also arbitrarily selects the viewerโ€™s position and point of interpretation. This separation is physically edited and enforced by the windowpane. Rotating mirrors illuminate the space round and round, much like the way of a spectator’s gaze scans the gallery space as passing along the street. In the projected and endless 8-minute video-loop, we pass through a cold library-like space reminiscent of a repetitive maze. At an inaccessible distance we see the reflection of trees, but there is no connection between the natural and the artificial world. As the rotating spotlight illuminates every new corner of the maze – the light expresses our desire for a scientific cure that will eventually find a solution to the COVID epidemic situation. The infinitely repetitive video cycle reflects the usual human scenario where humanity first conquers nature and then casts its faith in science to ward off the effects of the previously destroyed circumstances of (human) life. Somehow we should stop this endlessly recurring circle of death and sorrow.

karma-sign-inverted

in Hungarian:

A โ€žCOVID-idล‘kโ€ miatt kiadjuk a hรกrom projektoros fรฉnyinstallรกciรณnak a rรถvidรญtett VR360 video vรกltozatรกt. A kiรกllรญtรกsi vรกltozat szintรฉn COVID-biztos, mivel a kรถzรถnsรฉg nem lรฉphet be a Lighthouse x galรฉriรกba. A kiรกllรญtรกs ezt a helyzetet tรผkrรถzi.
A galรฉria hรกrom falรกt panorรกmakรฉnt vetรญtik kรถrbe a projektorok, hogy a 3D-s animรกciรณ perspektรญvรกja az utcafronti ablakbรณl vรกlik รฉrthetล‘vรฉ. A perspektivikus nรฉzet automatikusan kivรกlasztja a nรฉzล‘ pozรญciรณjรกt. A reneszรกnsz Leon Battista Alberti รณta egy festmรฉny tere “ablak” lett az eurรณpai festรฉszeti hagyomรกnyban. Eredetileg a perspektรญvikus nรฉzล‘pont egyeztetรฉse a nรฉzล‘ kรฉptรฉrbe vonรกsรกt szolgรกlta, de jelenleg a kรฉp ablakรกt a galรฉria fizikai รผvege blokkolja, ami az objektรญv ok – a jรกrvรกnyos helyzet – metaforรกja. A perspektรญva egyszerre kikรผszรถbรถli a nรฉzล‘ รฉs a kรฉp kรถzรถtti tรกvolsรกgot, de รถnkรฉnyesen kivรกlasztja a nรฉzล‘ helyzetรฉt รฉs รฉrtelmezรฉsi pontjรกt is. Ezt a szรฉtvรกlasztรกst fizikailag szerkeszti รฉs kรฉnyszerรญti ki az ablakรผveg. A forgรณ tรผkrรถk kรถrbe-kรถrbe vilรกgรญtjรกk be a teret, ahhoz hasonlatosan, ahogy az utcรกn elhaladรณ nรฉzล‘k a galรฉria tรฉrรฉt pรกztรกzzรกk. A vetรญtett รฉs vรฉgtelenรญtett 8 perces videรณban egy hideg kรถnyvtรกrszerลฑ tรฉren haladunk รกt, amely egy ismรฉtlล‘dล‘ labirintusra emlรฉkeztet. Elรฉrhetetlen tรกvolsรกgban fรกk tรผkrรถzล‘dรฉsรฉt lรกtjuk, de a termรฉszeti รฉs a mestersรฉges vilรกg kรถzรถtt nincs kapcsolat. Ahogy a forgรณ reflektor megvilรกgรญtja a labirintus minden รบjabb sarkรกt – a fรฉny kifejezik a kรญvรกnsรกgunkat a tudomรกnyos gyรณgymรณd irรกnti, amely vรฉgรผl majd megoldรกst talรกl a Covid-jรกrvรกny helyzetre. A vรฉgtelenรผl megismรฉtlล‘dล‘ videociklus a szokรกsos emberi forgatรณkรถnyvet tรผkrรถzi, amikor az emberisรฉg elล‘szรถr meghรณdรญtja a termรฉszetet, majd a tudomรกnyba veti hitรฉt, hogy kivรฉdje az (emberi) รฉlet korรกbban elpusztรญtott kรถrรผlmรฉnyeibล‘l fakadรณ hatรกsokat.
Valahogy le kellene รกllรญtanunk ezt a vรฉgtelenรผl ismรฉtlล‘dล‘ halรกlos kรถrt.