IDIOTIC SYSTEM (Hungary, 1971-1976)

With his successive self-portraits the Hungarian art photographer Gábor Attalai symbolically illustrates the madness of functioning in a communist system. According to Attalai, the standard situation in communist countries was characterised by a suffocating lack of freedom and the ideological ‘dialogue’ that communist regimes tried to enter into with their subjects. Because of the one-sided nature of this supposed ‘dialogue’ it was perforce doomed to failure. In any case, the regimes were not interested in the views of the citizens; they sought only to impose their own concepts as the truth. Anyone in a communist state who did not want to be driven crazy had to act as though he was insane, says Attalai.