Törőcsik Mari park, 11th District, Budapest
ZOETROPE
A zoetrope is one of the pre-motion picture animation tools that create the illusion of movement by displaying a series of drawings or photographs showing the stages of movement. It was essentially a cylindrical version of the phenakistoscope developed almost immediately after the advent of the stroboscopic disc in 1833. The definitive version, with easily interchangeable image strips, was introduced as a toy by Milton Bradley in 1866 and was very successful. The name zoetrope is derived from the Greek words ζωή, zoe, ‘life’, and τρόπος tropos, ‘wheel of life’.
THE CONCEPT
The small handheld zoetrope devices have inspired many contemporary artists to build working versions on a larger scale. The point is always to bring to life a compelling, simple form of movement to transform the zoetrope as an object that changes scale into a sculpture, a work of art.
Mari Törőcsik, a brilliant talent of post-war Hungarian filmmaking, starred in several masterpieces. The film Körhinta (Carousel), directed by Zoltán Fábri and based on a short story by Imre Sarkadi, was released in 1956. We used a short excerpt from the most influential film in Mari Törőcsik’s oeuvre, the swing scene, and have broken it down to its elements. In the scene, thanks to the brilliant cinematography, we feel like soaring along on the carousel with Imre Soós and Mari Törőcsik. In the beautifully composed close-ups, the then 20-year-old young girl’s worried look mixed with an exhilarated smile is a singular moment in Hungarian film history. A brief detail of the scene, the closeup of the actress’ face, is highlighted. Divided into 24 phases of movement, we see a looped, endless movement peering through thin slits while spinning the cylinder.
The metal-bodied zoetrope pays tribute to the wonderful actress, evokes the beginning of the history of the moving image, and playfully engages the viewer in the mystery of creating movement.
THE ARTWORK
The 11th district of Budapest and the Hungarian Chamber of Architects have jointly announced a nationwide design competition for the creation of the Mari Törőcsik memorial. The concept of the memorial is that of a hand-turned zoetrope with a diameter of 2 metres which encapsulates Mari Törőcsik’s smile. It evokes the mystery of filmmaking by allowing the visitor to the park to spin the cylinder and transform the still images hidden in the inner casing into a series of movements.
The cylinder, open at the top and closed at the bottom, is made of a raw 20 mm thick aluminum sheet. The top half of the casing has 24 narrow perforated slots and the inner casing has the same number of black and white images from the film scene, broken down into phases. The frames are printed on a painted clear metal sheet.
From László Bérczes’s Conversation Book, we have highlighted an excerpt of the actor’s testimony which will be engraved on the outer casing of the cylinder (p. 432 of the book published by Európa, 2018).
For twilight and evening operation, a LED strip on the upper edge of the drum provides adequate lighting powered by a scaled photovoltaic panel mounted on a nearby lamppost.
In the resting position, this inner light filters through the perforated strips making the work of art visible.
Design: 2023
