1/4 Hungarian

The show 1/4 Hungarian to be presented in Liget Gallery, Budapest and the Institute of Contemporary Art – Dunaújváros maps ways of critical enunciations through which artists interrogate, critique, or offer alternatives to, the political, social, economic and cultural regimes that the individual is often inclined to view as given and, therefore, unchanging or unchangable. The artworks on view are marked by an impressive vitality which springs from the fact that their theoretical concerns grow out of lived experience.

The original version of the present show, the Czechpoint exhibition in Prague last Winter concentrated on issues of political and social exclusion or permeability, and featured Central European artists as well as curatorial sub-projects sampling artists from Mexico, Israel and Moldavia. Our current remix re-shuffles both the list of participating artists and the thematic foci of the exhibition. Part of the artworks in this selection explore the various factors that shape identity and the stability of the resulting identifications. Some other works leave the question of personal identity to examine how identity construction operates at large: on the level of society, the nation, international relations, culture or religion.

The title of the present show refers to a 2004 work of the Slovakian artist Viktor Frešo when he, in reaction to the anti-Hungarian media statements of the local mayor, sprayed his own statement on the wall of the gallery of Zilina, Slovakia: I’m 1/4 Hungarian and I’m 3/4 proud of it. Thus the exhibition 1/4 Hungarian also searches the ways the meaning and interpretation of a critical enunciation might vary in any different context. Questions whether artworks may help us relate to events and conflict situtations that take place elsewhere, or whether we can develop an ability to view our immediate reality from a new, perhaps relativizing perspective, are also addressed.

Exhibiting artists:
Sándor Bodó (HU), Jiri Cernický (CZ), David Cerný (CZ), Tanja Dabo (HR), Nitsan Domidiano (IL), Iván Edeza (MEX), Harun Farocki (D), Katharina Fiegl – Eva Jiricková (A-SK), Jiri Franta (CZ), Viktor Frešo (SK), Mandy Gehrt (D), Róza El-Hassan (HU), Albert Heta (KOS), Tibor Horváth (HU), Intercultural Orientation (HU), Rafal Jakubowicz (PL), Enrique Ježik (MEX), Tamás Kaszás – Anikó Loránt (HU), Lilla Khoór – Will Potter (HU-UK), Radim Labuda (SK), MKKP [The Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party] (HU), Miklós Mécs (HU), Avi Mograbi (IL), Michal Moravcík (SK), Rudolf Pacsika (HU), PODEBAL: Petr Motycka, Antonín Kopp, Jan Kotík (CZ); Borbála Luca Sárai (HU), Avdey Ter-Oganyan (RUS), David Ter-Oganyan (RUS), Zsolt Veress [Csaba Nemes] (HU), Lorena Wolffer (MEX), Nevet Yitschak – Lior Fridman (IL), Martin Zet (CZ), Manar Zuabi (PAL)