The Gheorgheni Artists’ Workshop, which has been operating in the heart of Transylvania for 50 years, is now internationally renowned. In the mid-1970s, during the period of the Romanian communist dictatorship, the first artists’ camps were organised in the tradition of Nagybánya, where accommodation and work were offered in a Franciscan monastery, next to a noble mansion belonging to the Lazar family and a late 15th century Gothic chapel. Strictly censored both ethnically and ideologically, the art centre was initially mainly Hungarian and Romanian (from Romania), and hosted only professional artists.
Over the years, the artists’ colony has carefully preserved its traditions, while at the same time aiming to belong to the artistic mainstream. This became a reality after the structural changes of the late 1990s, when István Erős and Zsolt Siklodi took over the leadership of a team who redefined the spirit of Nagybánya, broadening its horizons by focusing on local values. The KorkéP art workshops have also expanded the range of genres, while at the same time introducing site-specific artworks focusing on the relationship between nature and art. The emphasis was thus placed on the creative process and the journey to get there, which greatly enhanced the role of documentation. It was also a period of building international relations.
The fact that the artists’ collective has survived for five decades – surviving the darkest years of the communist dictatorship in Romania, the turbulent period of regime change, and the not always sensitive to artistic and cultural aspects of the early years of democracy – is in itself a huge achievement. The 50-year history of the artists’ colony has also demonstrated that, with a mature concept, significant intellectual workshops and creative strategies can exist in places far from major artistic centres, where site-specific works of art, born in the context of the natural and rural environment, reveal new layers of content, providing valid local responses to global issues. Szárhegy is living proof that the theoretical model of centre-periphery is now being overturned, and the hierarchical relationship between centre and ends seems to be disappearing.
To mark the anniversary, a series of festive exhibitions was launched in 2024, with exhibitions in Gheorghe and then in Miercurea. To crown it all, in the spring of 2025, the Kunsthalle will host a consciously selected exhibition focusing on the genius loci, but also diverse in terms of themes and genres, to convey the universal values of the art colony through the idea of ‘szárhegyiség’. A key element is the continuous expansion of international relations, as represented by the Sárhegy network graphics by László Albert Barabási and Csaba Both, also presented in the exhibition. In the 50 years of the Artists’ Colony, 976 artists have visited Szárhegy, of whom sixty-four have now been given the opportunity to exhibit in the Kunsthalle.
István ERŐS, Réka FAZAKAS
Exhibiting artists:
Zsolt ASZTALOS, Imre BAÁSZ † (RO), József BALLA † (RO), Fábián BARÁTH, Imre BERZE (RO), Imre BUKTA, Aurel CIUPE † (RO), Zsolt Szilárd CSÓKA (RO), Lajos CSONTÓ, Árpád DARADICS, Károly ELEKES, Barna ÉLTES (RO), Gábor ERDÉLYI, István ERŐS, S. Apor (RO), FERENCZ Zoltán (RO), GAÁL András † (RO), Gaál József, Tatsunor FUJI (JPN) GERBER Pál, Gisle HARR (NOR), HORVÁTH Levente (RO), IMRE Mariann, KIM Woon-Young (KOR), KO Seunghyun (KOR), KOLOZSI Tibor (RO), KOPACZ Kund, KOTER Vilmos (RO), KOVÁCS Kinga (RO), KUSZTOS Endre † (RO), KULCSÁR Béla † (RO), KOROKNAI Zsolt, LÉSTYÁN Csaba (RO), LIPKOVICS Péter, MADARAS Péter (RO), MAKKAI István (RO), MÁRTON Árpád (RO), MAYER Éva (SK), Mircia DUMITRESCU (RO), Ionel MIHAI (RO), MOLNÁR Ágnes Éva, NAGY Pál † (RO), Nandesha Shanti PRAKASH (IND), OPRIS Cristian (RO), Ochirbat ENKHTAIVAN (MGL), PÁL Péter (RO), Patrick TAGOE Turkson (GHA), PETŐ Hunor, POLGÁR Botond, POKORNY Attila, POSTA Máté, SÁNTA Csaba (RO), SIKLÓDY Ferenc (RO), SIKLODI Zsolt † (RO), Shirakava MASAHIRO † (JPN), STARK István, SZABÓ Ábel, SZIGETI G. Csongor, SZIRTES János, TAKASHI Ikezawa (JPN), TASNÁDI József, ÜTŐ Gusztáv (RO), VASS Sándor, ZAKARIÁS István