… the ironic use of historic role play and kitsch is missing, there are no props, costumes, theatrical gestures, poses, only the friends, colleagues appearing as original flesh-and-blood people who wear their own clothes, as carriers of a humorous yet wry post-conceptual text-work. In the picture created at the Szeged workshop in 2001 and presented at the thematic exhibition Klíma (Climate) at the Mûcsarnok ( - you have become the victim of an illusion - , 2001, picture 96.) artists and art historians, who are esteemed by Csontó or characteristic of the Hungarian art scene appear in a life-sized frieze as they all pull up their T-shirts or shirts and flash a letter of the text tattooed onto their skin – these are in fact computer-generated letters. As a meeting point of personal and social space, the skin, the outer layer of the body has always been interpreted in international body art and cultural anthropology as a carrier of messages related to society. Gina Pane, for example, who probed the borders of the Self, interpreted the scars she had made on her own body both as “critical signs” aimed at society and as imprints made visible by the influences of society. The stigmas appearing on the skin of the artists in Csontó’s work are much more indirect, indicating that in today’s society condemnation and discrimination are manifest in a more cunning, indirect way, hiding behind the guise of democracy. But the critique of society, of contemporary Hungarian art and of the domestic intellectual climate – covered in philosophical statements and virtual tattoo – suggested by the inscription is also more indirect. The meaning of the text “you have become the victim of an illusion” can be interpreted in several ways, on various levels of generalization. The first is the simple fact that the body of the participants has become part of the work of art as an illusion, which is of course true for the receiver as well. The second, more general meaning is that those who put themselves on display have become the victims of an illusion as a community. The victims of what – this can be understood if we take a look at the members of the group. In Csontó’s work representative artists and critics of the middle generation appear, who have significant professional achievements and often, international reputation, yet their financial position and their social recognition in Hungary is not in proportion with that. As a result, these artists have become the victims of an illusion in terms of their lives, their ideas – when starting their career they thought that they could achieve the recognition and financial position their work deserved, that they would be judged based on their performance. In this sense, young artists have been deceived by the small-scale, inbred Hungarian art scene itself.
From their underestimated position it is understandable why are they stigmatized, why do they carry a stigma on their bodies – even if it is interpreted in a playful way. The movement, which reveals the intimate sphere of the body and brings out the exhibitionist character of the profession, the fact that the artist (and the critic) lays himself on the line, the risk of self-revelation also signals that they are not ashamed to play this role, and with the group photograph they demonstrate their togetherness and independence. As we have mentioned, skin appears in international works of art as a mediator between society and the individual, as a carrier of identity. Here, too, it manifests cultural identity, existence connected to art. The concept of art that appears in Csontó’s work is quite democratic and sharply different from the rigid hierarchy of the Hungarian scene. There are no outstanding figures, prima donnas, award winners in the group he photographs; everyone carries a sign of the same importance, which only have meaning together. The meaning of the text also indicates the deconstruction of the heroic concept of art. The illusion to which both the participants of the art scene and the spectators have fallen victim to alludes to the shallow medium that provides narrow room for the portrayed generation, which creates the appearance that it has institutions of social importance and its own “stars”. The group portrayed by Csontó signals the departure from this social context, which, parallel to other goals of the generation, is articulated in independent initiatives that secede from state and political institutions, like the Szeged workshop they have established. Illusion may also have an even more general meaning, which alludes to the economic and political manipulation of contemporary Hungarian reality facing globalization, as a result of which each individual in society is the victim of one illusion – or more. Csontó’s work that reflects on Gábor Gerhes’ picture is a welcome new phenomenon on the local scene. It is a characteristic trait of the international art scene that artists pay sensitive attention to each other’s works and, more importantly, they react quickly to them. The continuous, often critical conversation, personal discourse during which the works interpret and reinforce each other is the body of art itself, which creates a real, lively intellectual medium for the individual works, situating them and making a general phenomenon of the Hungarian scene practically impossible: that some important works or exhibitions lack feedback.
In case of Gerhes, we could see the contradictory combination of intimacy and role play. In Csontó’s case friendship and the undertaking of the intellectual and human community is much more open. 

                                                                                                                    János Sturcz