From November 26 to December 16, 2024, the mini sculptures traveled along the route: from Budapest Airport, where they paid tribute to the Liszt monument, to Thailand, where they visited the Golden Temple of Ganesha in Chiang Rai, and Wat Huai Pla Kang with the giant Guanyin, the ruins of Wat Ruesi Chewap in Chiang Mai, in Bangkok the 0 km marker, the royal palace and cultural center with an exhibition of the Bangkok Biennale, and Koh Tao island. At each location, searches were conducted to find a spot for installing the mini monument. The site fitting was accompanied by photographic documentation.
During heavy rain on Koh Tao, they began to soften and bloom. They were sent to the spirit house near Ao Leuk beach to negotiate for good weather. Not in vain — the next day the weather improved. They were left in that spirit house.
Installed on May 14, 2024 Zsolnay Quarter, Pécs (Hungary) Materials: apple, acrylic
The golden apple embarked on a journey through the historical labyrinth of the Zsolnay Quarter — between time and space, history and modernity, art and the street, matter and reflection.
The apple did not merely travel through the quarter — it entered the exhibition space, becoming for a moment part of the “official” history of the Zsolnay Golden Age, but then stepped beyond its boundaries once again, dissolving into the real environment.
Its journey was documented in a series of photographs: the apple reflected the sun, glided across the textures of the space, as if tasting the matter of time. Each frame is a moment of choice between motion and stillness, disappearance and presence.
The choice of location became the culmination. The offering took place beside one of the two ceramic Sphinx sculptures guarding the staircase. In that moment, the reflection from the golden surface altered the expression on the Sphinx’s face. Was it an illusion, a play of light, or the past come to life, accepting the gift?
The project invites reflection on how values, both material and immaterial, move through time, transforming meanings and leaving a trace in our perception.
From the authors: “We left the apple there, by the Sphinx. What happened next? We don’t know, but we can imagine several scenarios.
Perhaps the Apple disappeared—someone took it. Maybe it was a passerby who saw value or mystery in it. Maybe a tourist took it as a souvenir, or a child believed they’d found a magical artifact.
Or the Apple remained in place but changed—rain and wind began to wash away the gold, revealing the living matter beneath the surface. It began to decay, becoming part of the urban environment, vanishing somewhere between art and nature.
Perhaps the Apple became part of the Quarter—someone moved it elsewhere, continuing its journey. Maybe it appeared by another sculpture, or ended up inside one of the Zsolnay ceramic workshops.
We like to believe the Apple turned into a legend—even if it disappeared physically, its story remains. Someone will tell it again, someone will search for its traces, and someone might catch a fleeting glint on the Sphinx’s face and remember this moment.
In this context, the Apple is a temporary guerrilla sculpture—installed without permission, yet altering the perception of the space. It intervened in the environment of the Zsolnay Quarter, entered into a dialogue with the Sphinx, and disappeared, leaving behind only memory and photographic trace.
This offering was a fleeting gesture, but it sharpened the boundary between presence and disappearance, art and everyday life, the material and the symbolic.”
From June 10 to 23, 2023, the mini sculptures traveled along the route: Hungary — Keszthely, Croatia — Split, Pelješac (Žuljana, Ston, Mali Ston, Sveti Ivan, Orebić), Zadar. At each location, searches were conducted to find a spot for installing the mini monument. The site fitting was accompanied by photographic documentation. The installation point — Zadar, Dock.
From the authors: “…We scraped together from the bins and swept the barns, and gathered enough flour for… an unauthorized monument to travelers. The piece turned out eco-friendly and harmless, full of salt. A two-figure mini sculpture — semi-amorphous beings: one with a mustache and a panama hat, the other wearing glasses, hand in hand, both with backpacks. (I thought about naming them ‘Look-Alikes’ because they really do look alike, and it sounds like ‘walkers’ and ‘passersby’ too, but then I figured, let them walk with us for a while, maybe the right name will come later.)
And so they went with us on a journey through Dalmatia… They trekked through dark forests, crossed wide steppes, climbed high mountains. Along the way, they gave concerts in towns, with great success… And all the time they tried on the surroundings and atmosphere.
Exactly one month ago, right after the shortest night, our minis finally found their place. Everything came together in Zadar — with the constant sounds of the Sea Organ and the cries of seagulls. Next to the ‘Greeting to the Sun’ and ‘staring into the sunset.’ The mooring bollard — the perfect pedestal. And what a texture it has! Nothing can spoil it. (We were worried, we didn’t want to glue anything in historic places to avoid damaging the site.)
In short, everything aligned perfectly: the journey salted with salt inside them, the salt of the sea, the salt of the roads, and the sun. So these ‘Posolontsy’ (Salt Travelers) came to be — a monument to salty travelers who have tasted the salt of the path and the salty sea spray…
I don’t know how long they will stand there (or have stood). Usually not long. After all, that’s what travelers are for.”
You can try searching for photos on Google Maps at the following locations: Zadarska županija (здесь и здесь) и Zadar Dock (здесь ) . There are many views, but no new photos have appeared. Is the monument still there, or has it been moved somewhere? But that’s exactly how it’s meant to be.
Materials used: cotton wool, earth pigments from Darvastó, thread, time.
About the Place: The quarry is located approximately 7 km southwest of the town of Nyirád. It is characterized by its red coloration and is currently inactive. The quarry measures approximately 700 meters in length, 250–400 meters in width, and 15–20 meters in depth.
The extracted material was aluminum ore — bauxite. Bauxite forms as a result of the weathering of igneous rocks in tropical climates. Under extremely hot and rainy conditions, the rocks disintegrate, and their components are transported in solution to areas of sedimentation where the flow of water slows down. The bedrock of the quarry is Upper Triassic dolomite (dating from 227 to 205 million years ago). During the Cretaceous period (143 to 113 million years ago), bauxite-bearing particles accumulated in a bay formed by a depression in the dolomite layer, eventually forming the bauxite lens. Bauxite mining in the Nyirád area began in the 1940s. Ore from the lens was extracted through deep mining and the pumping of karst water. The quarry was closed in 1977. [1, 2, 3]
Artistic Intervention In 2022, we visited the quarry and brought an artistic presence into its landscape. A small stag figurine, handcrafted from cotton wool and tinted with natural pigments taken directly from the site, was photographed by us in the quarry. Then we left it there — an unauthorized miniature monument. It bore no label, no explanation, no protection. It simply remained — vulnerable, visible, and quietly appropriate.
The red stag in the red earth became a silent ritual of return. A handmade creature, infused with the color of the land itself, placed into the wounded earth like a stitch.
In many mythologies, the stag is a messenger between worlds — between the visible and the hidden, the natural and the artificial, trauma and regeneration.
We see it as a soft footprint on hard ground. A gesture of remembrance, healing, and care.
This action was created by our team as part of a growing series of works exploring the memory of the land, ecological trauma, and myth through Revealed Realism (RR) — a method of subtle intervention, documentation, and co-presence with altered landscapes.
