The exhibition Budapest Box is based on the concept of the artist as curator. The phenomenon of artists acting as curators is, by no means, new in the history of the institution of art: it is suffice to mention Courbet’s case who, in the middle of the 19th century, was obliged to erect a temporary space for the exhibition of his own, officially rejected works, given he wanted to show them for the public. For this reason he can be regarded as one the first examples of the artist-curator, and his space as the first ‘artist-run space’.
The exhibition aims at showing the activity of those projects, and (virtual or real) spaces that have been initiated by artists for the past twelve years in Budapest. Quite a few of these are still active (Kirakat, Kis Varsó, kmkk, IPUT, ikOn, JAVA, Ágnes Szabics, index, Videospace) which is a sign for the growing intensity of this kind of activity in Budapest.
The period that appears in the exhibition starts approximately in June, 1989 when the a group of young artists, who later became known as the Újlak Group, made an exhibition in the derelict Hungária Bath. During the same summer, the group got hold of the unused building of the Újlak Cinema and made several one-night long solo and group shows.
The birth of these artists’ initiatives is always an indicator of the deficiencies the official institutional framework. The artists create and fund parallel institutions that are run without any financial support, with a minimum budget, thus trying to bridge the gaps of the existing institutional system.
The exhibition itself focuses on the Budapest art scene and is accompanied by so-called satellite events (concerts, panel discussions, lectures, presentations, etc.) in September with the participation of other projects within the country and also from abroad that function as models for further initiatives.
Another extremely important element of this show is related to the so-far non-existing system of artist’s fee in Hungary. The Ludwig Museum Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art wishes to make a symbolic step in changing this practice and to pay a fee for the participating artists. By this we hope to raise the social acceptance and value of the visual arts.
Participating artists:
Beöthy Balázs
Leseraum 2 (Luchezar Boyadijev, El-Hassan Róza, Milica Tomic)
Fodor János – Horváth Tibor: JAVA / BBS
Process Gallery / Fő st.3. (Császári Gábor, Adèle
Eisenstein)
"Turkish" Bath (Adèle Eisenstein, Kozári Hilda)
Substitute Thirtsters
Shopwindow Gallery
tatc (El-Hassan Róza, Hegyi Dóra, Sugár János, Süvecz
Emese)
Little Varsaw
Atelier Gallery (Kopasz Tamás)
Menesi Attila / Christoph Rauch
Milieu et L’EGO (Beöthy Balázs, Nemes Csaba, Pereszlényi
Rolland)
Szabics Ágnes: Survival Execirse
IPUT (superintendant: St. Auby Tamás)
Manamana (Erhardt Miklós – Várnagy Tibor)
Veszely Beáta
Four Big Rich (elek is, Hecker Péter, Nagy Attila)
Újlak Group
Videospace Budapest: frames (Eike, Németh Hajnal, Várnai Gyula)