In addition to folk music, Béla Bartók also collected insects. He catalogued thousands of butterflies, flies, spiders, wasps and other insects with the same scientific thoroughness as the some 10,000 folk songs he had recorded.
Most of Bartók’s wax cylinders and scores have survived the destruction of war and are still on display. However, the insect collection was less fortunate: all that had been spared by the war was later devoured by maggots inside the museum. Only those 250 hard-shelled beetles survive of the enormous collection that had been able to withstand the attack of the maggots.
The insects are on display at the Bartók Memorial House, while the works of art inspired by them are visible at the 2B Gallery.
Bálint Bori, Ken Butler, Elekes Károly, Hajagos Andrea, Kicsiny Balázs, Sándor Rácmolnár, John Roach, Roskó Gábor, Swierkiewicz Róbert, Tandori Dezső, Várnagy Tibor, Zsák Árpád
Bugs of Bartok
06. March 2007. – 14. April
MegnyitóOpening: March 5, 2007, 6:00 pm