Flesh Is Never Lost
Reflections on László Győrffy’s Exhibition

Holt Lenszkij

Icon and cover image: László Győrffy: Rotten to the Core (BF09) ╱ 2025–2026 ╱ painted chamotte ╱ 15,3×23,5×21 cm ╱ Photo: Dávid Biró

László Győrffy’s body farm is more nuanced than this. In his exhibition BODY FARM III (The Legacy), the metamorphosis of flesh does not evoke death or gradual fading away, but rather the sheer impossibility of ceasing to exist. However hard we may try, we simply cannot erase ourselves – or one another – from the larger whole, the organism we call the world. The decomposition of the body is, at most, a bridge between states of being. Győrffy’s creatures appear to experience the various biological and physical postmortem transformations with tremendous delight and playfulness, entirely untroubled by the fact that their bodies have been transformed into artificial gardens in the name of science – and, in this case, art – within the upstairs exhibition space of art quarter budapest. Walking among the ceramic sculptures, I could think only of how surprisingly easy it is to regard death and its consequences as a posthuman gesture. Human beings do not cease to exist; it is only their humanity that changes form, allowing them to continue their existence in the form of NECROHUMUS or as a Root-Degraded Failed Employee. Existence, like a decent-enough workplace, offers opportunities for growth: anyone could, quite possibly, become a potted mass of flesh one day. There is something reassuring about this necro-Buddhism, in which being trapped within the greater whole means that the individual, in the very act of passing away, becomes a creature that continues to evolve, suggesting that the afterlife need not be sought elsewhere – in some unknown beyond – but rather here, among other places, in this upstairs exhibition venue. The inevitability of transformation may be frightening, yet for the sake of preserving our inner peace we should welcome the changes that befall the body – even if we are destined to persist as a raised middle finger protruding from a mound of rotting flesh. Perhaps there is nothing more worth saying: long live the new flesh, long live László Győrffy.

______________
László Győrffy: Body Farm III (The Legacy)
art quarter budapest – Attic,
2026. V. 15. – VI. 6.