Marking the 1st anniversary of am projects, this year’s season opens with a duo exhibition of Kinga-Noémi Ács and Martha Kicsiny, continuing the professional program of Ani Molnár Gallery’s project space, dedicated to showcasing young, emerging Hungarian female artists in its project space.

In Roman and Greek mythology, Gods hold a dominant role in both number and influence. However, Goddesses also occupied significant positions in religious and social life. Nevertheless, these myths are rife with judgments, behaviors, and negative female archetypes—such as witches, harpies, or other demonized female figures — that have profoundly shaped and perpetuated stereotypes about women and the struggles of womenhood. In Roman mythology, Fortuna was the Goddess of luck, chance and fate, often symbolized by a perpetually turning wheel. This wheel represented the inevitable fluctuations of life, the cyclical alternation of fortune and misfortune Fortuna brought into lives. The Wheel of fortune became a powerful metaphor for the idea that human destiny was not solely in individual hands but often swayed by external forces, random occurrences, and Fortuna’s whims. It embodied life’s cyclical nature and the power of fate, placing the burden of responsibility on Fortuna, the female embodiment of destiny.

The Wheel of fortune serves as the central motif of the duo exhibition by Kinga-Noémi Ács and Martha Kicsiny, which both emerging female artists examine from a critical perspective, exploring its historical context, cultural impact and symbolic weight. The exhibition, Fortuna burns, examines the narrative shift of how collective patterns and norms—long considered predestined and immutable—are give way to individual responsibility, personal liberation, and the dominance of external forces (such as nature) in shaping gender roles, social dynamics, and human condition. Kinga-Noémi Ács' interactive works explore female figures from myths (Harpies, witches, sirens) as origin stories, drawing parallels to the experiences of contemporary women who face similar societal injustices and prejudices. Her artworks encourage viewers to reflect on the complexity of womenhood and to recognize that every life story and its judgment remains subjective when only fragments or fleeting moments are known. Martha Kicsiny delves into myths of chaos caused by demigods attempting to harness, yet failing to control the forces of nature (e.g., the story of Phaethon). Through this, she holds up a mirror to our self-destructive society. Her ominous marker drawings and digitally reimagined lithophanes evoke the complexities of generational and narrative shifts: the challenge of preserving cultural heritage and the collective sense of futurelessness in the new generation.

Is Fortuna’s wheel burning as a symbol of a new generation breaking free from the constraints of fate, leaving the past behind? Or is it consumed by a greater, destructive force that overrides our envisioned or hoped-for futures—a force that might also be interpreted as a purifying fire?