Judit Angel

Sándor Bartha
Balázs Beöthy
Big Hope (Miklós Erhardt / Dominic Hislop)
CAB – Curator's Association Budapest
Tamás Kaszás/Viktor Kotun
Manamana

By taking civilian activism as its theme, Judit Angel's curatorial contribution wishes to stress the importance of this phenomenon in Hungary. It presents Hungarian artists and collaborative groups which have developed lasting contacts with the activist movement, reflect on issues of civic participation and aim at initiating changes in the institutional structure of contemporary art in Hungary. This growth in participatory demands signals rather a qualitative than a quantitative turn in local art and society and it may be ascribed both to the so-called “mental transition” that follows the economic, legal and political transformations of the post 1989 Central East European countries and to the expansion of globalisation and neo-liberal economy which give rise to various forms of resistance.

Works and Projects

Sándor Bartha, Other Spaces, 2006, Video, 40 min.

Sándor Bartha’s video presents an independent arts centre in Budapest, that was set up in a former factory manufacturing medical instruments: as a communication and work space for various artistic and activist initiatives. Unlike conventional documentary methods that transport information above all by means of language, Bartha sets out to capture the atmosphere of the place by means of visual impressions.

Balázs Beöthy, Vertical Shift, 2006, Video installation

Although dense urban traffic and air pollution are pressing problems in Budapest, there is a complete lack of urban planning concepts to defuse this situation. Cycling is officially not regarded as a serious alternative but rather, at best, as a hobby or sport. Meanwhile, however, numerous civic action groups and bicycle initiatives have been set up with the aim of achieving closer monitoring of investments in the city’s traffic system. Balázs Beöthy – himself a passionate cyclist – confronts us with the unpleasant experience of a bicycle journey around the streets of Budapest, discussing radical alternatives.

Big Hope (Miklós Erhardt / Dominic Hislop), Talking about Economy, 2003, Video, 30 min.

The video shows a series of interviews held in Dunaújváros (Hungary) and Berlin with individuals from various lines of work. Dunaújváros – formerly Sztálinváros, or “Stalin City” – was constructed in the 1950s according to the principles of socialist utopian urban planning. Today, the city is faced with a crisis caused by structural change. The interviewees in Berlin, in contrast, already experienced rapid, fundamentally changing economic in the course of reunification. With their project, Miklós Erhardt and Dominic Hislop aim to put into perspective the common assumption that, because of their complexity, economic questions today can only be answered by experts or politicians. Their goal is to motivate the general public to participate in the discourse on economic topics.

CAB - Curators' Association Budapest, Between the Lines, 2006, Video, 40 min.

The video shows a series of discussions with representatives of the Hungarian art scene. However, based on the classical interview format, these are enacted interview situations: the questions and answers obey strict rules set up by the interviewer. In order to avoid the conventional, rather negative view of one’s own art scene, the interviewees were asked to avoid all complaints and to interpret the existing facts in such a way as to paint a positive picture.

Tamás Kaszás/Viktor Kotun, Our Goal Is Life
Maquette of the Museum of Budapest Squatters, 2006, Installation

Squatting is not an old tradition in Hungary. Only in recent years has a squatting scene formed in Budapest that is committed equally to preserving historical architectural fabric and creating autonomous, non-commercial spaces of action for art and activism. The installation by Tamás Kaszás and Viktor Kotun is the product of an artistic-activist collaboration. In keeping with the squatter aesthetic, it was made of recycled materials. In a mixture of Greek temple, museum and infoshop, the installation serves as an archive for various political initiatives, with the emphasis on the “Zentrum” youth group, that belongs to the radical wing of Budapest activists.

Tibor Várnagy, Miklós Erhardt, BiL, Manamana UPDATED, 2006, www.c3.hu/~ligal/ManamanaFO.htm

The Manamana project initiated by artists in 2000 counts among the first forums in Hungary to take up the critical discourses on globalisation and establish a successful network of independent activists. Since then, numerous such forums have come into being – including indymedia – so that the role initially played by “Manamana” was gradually assumed by other players. Against this backdrop, Manamana sets out to adopt a new position. The website update is part of this process. The website features a current interview between Tibor Várnagy and Magdalena Marsovszky that focuses on the status of culture in Germany and Hungary and on the significance of cultural policy with regard to resolving cultural conflicts. The interview follows on from a previous series of discussions between the artist and the journalist and media researcher living in Germany. Another contribution is based on Miklós Erhardt’s ongoing interview project in which artists, culture workers and activists in Hungary and abroad discuss why they opted for a collective working method – and what problems and frustrations this mode of working entails. The aim of the project is to publish a kind of manual for collective (art) practices.