In today’s world of increasingly dense extremes, troubled socio-political environments and dubious cultural-ecological prospects, the contradiction inherent in our human nature of wanting to be seen as special, yet often choosing to fit in safely, needs to be reassessed. Joining the queue can be a sign of belonging to a community, of empathy – but it can also be a sign of convenient accommodation. And not to join can be a conscious resistance, or even a self-serving attention-seeking. The current state of the domestic art scene – lack of professional autonomy and financial resources, a divided scene and the marginalisation of critical voices – also amplifies these dilemmas. All this makes the question of how to decide even more topical: do we join the queue or seek other forms of organisation?
One could say of the exhibition that it falls completely in line, if we claim that its aim is to raise questions. But this time the questions are focused on stepping out of the usual perspective, on looking at ourselves, others and our environment in a different way. Let us consider the ‘lines’ we fall into every day – consciously or not – and the norms by which we live. At the same time, let us consider when and why we step out of them: out of individual choice or community conviction?
The exhibition will present different ways of queuing and exiting the queue, be it in the content of a work or in the creative attitude of an artist, exploring the social, historical and artistic layers of meaning of the “queue” – from our everyday, individual things to the system of institutional structures. The works explore notions of individual and community, conformity and deviance, and through them, freedom.
Artus is more than an exhibition space – it is a living, organic creative space where different artistic disciplines, perspectives and artists coexist, even inspire each other. It is an independent, non-profit space that builds on diversity, opening up possibilities rather than a single direction. Individuality and community are not mutually exclusive – the creators here are present together, yet speak with an independent voice. Thus, an exhibition space that does not fit into traditional institutional categories, where crossing boundaries is natural, is also an ideal home and host for an exhibition that seeks to draw attention to the diversity and similarity of our own positions, our individual attitudes and our common relations.
To claim that the exhibition provides a complete and absolute answer would not only be foolhardy, but also completely wrong. Still, we are confronted with enough questions, and the exhibition is therefore conceived as a search for an answer that is partial in proportion but constructive in nature. Courage is born, first and foremost, not from certainty, but often precisely from uncertainty, driven by a multitude of crisis situations. They force us to take action, not only individually but also collectively, where despair turns into action and hopelessness into a search for alternatives. Where questions become more than answers,
but also a direction.
Exhibiting artists:
Borsos Lőrinc, Dobokay Máté, Flaviu Rogojan (RO), Florin Flueraș (RO), Gulyás Andrea Katalin, Lilith Öröksége (Fajgerné Dudás Andrea Júlia, Oláh Orsolya, Kusovszky Bea), Milinszki Boglárka, Norbert Kuki (SK), Sinkovics Ede, Szabó Liza, Virginia Lupu (RO).
Curators: Dimitrov Nikoleta, Domokos Ferenc, Endrész Aliz, Kecze Zsófia Annamária, Sapp Tóth Lili
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1 exhibition, 5 curators. We’re different, we work from different perspectives, but we still have something in common: we all met at METU’s Master’s programme in Design and Art Management, but none of us likes queuing. The prelude to the present exhibition took place during our joint studies, when Zsuzsanna Pörczi, Head of the METU Institute of Art and Design Theory and Tibor Nádor gave us the opportunity to get to know the Artus residents, open their exhibition and thanks to this we got the chance to organise an exhibition in the Artus Gallery. From individual curatorial ideas, a group exhibition was born, with intersecting ideas and artistic paths. On 19 May, an experiment in dialogue, a space of tension and freedom will be on display.