5th May Day Demonstration on Artificial Ground

The picture is a document of the conceptual period of a diversified oeuvre (graphic art, painting, film) unfolding from the late 1960s. From picture multiplication, the “classic” graphic procedure, Maurer changed over from printing to the leaving of elementary marks: pedotype or sole-printing, a “flow print” realized as personal action. The work is the documentation of itself: it is the object, “subject” and proof of the action. The work consists of an about 1/4–1/3 section of a circle of footprints in lying rectangular format below which – like a predella – a sequence of black/white phase shots inform us of the walking action in the studio, covering a whole circle. The “artificial ground” for the rite of the private procession is a crumpled glued issue of the official daily Népszabadság. The monotonous circling is done on this, with feet coloured red – befitting Workers’ Day –, a motion that can be continued till exhaustion without leading anywhere. Constraint and limitation: this – ironic and artistic – variant of physical exercise is – however indirectly – also the “imprint” of the mental context, the life situation not devoid of some (social) critical weight.