Two Pieces

20. February 2009. – 29. March
MegnyitóOpening: February 19, 2009, 6:00 pm
KurátorCurator: Sasvári Edit
The Two Pieces exhibition in the Templespace of the Kiscelli Museum shows two 2008 projects by Little Warsaw. The Ship of Fools film project, a co-production with Manifesta and ACAX, and made in association with Miklós Erhardt, is being shown in the nave of the church space. The other, in the apse, is a publication project with independent publishers Innen, based on Little Warsaw ‘s archive.

Little Warsaw started life in the second half of the 1990s as a collaboration between two artists – András Gálik and Bálint Havas – and still works on a collective basis. The works on display in the Kiscelli Museum also involved other collaborating partners.

Innen is an independent publishing operation in Budapest. Using accessible technology to meet demanding standards and realise its principles, Innen produces zines, postcards and posters. It also digitizes and reproduces materials of special value in serial-numbered copies. All of Innen’s publishing work is based on thorough, painstaking research. Its publications are frequently linked into series, and overall build up into a unique and complex publishing identity.

The collaboration between Little Warsaw and Innen started in 2007, when Innen approached Little Warsaw with a plan for a publication. The A/5-format, black-and-white photocopy quality booklet, printed on light blue paper, came out the next year, in a print run of 150. The publication is a subjective, poetic selection from Little Warsaw’s archive of the period 1993-2007.

Little Warsaw proposed a continuation of the collaboration in the form of an installation based on a joint concept: an exhibition-space presentation of the content of that book, comprising photocopies of the original graphics (drawings, photographs) in various sizes.

Little Warsaw and Miklós Erhardt have worked together before. (Art piece of the Week, Monitor) In the art film project Ship of Fools, Miklós Erhardt and Little Warsaw again appear as co-authors. The film by the three artists was premiered at last year’s Manifesta.

In Rovereto, a small town in northern Italy, a little anarchist group occupies an abandoned building. Their endeavour ends in eviction. The story was compiled from research at the scene and is made up of true events. The film examines the algorithm of squatting, in a smalltown context, using the device of replay. The methodology involves unpacking the urban legend which has arisen surrounding the eviction, and recalling, reviving, replaying and repeating the details. The film is a situation-sensitive reconstruction of the interrelationships through a gradually developed group situation, using simple dramaturgical devices.