During the autumn/winter season, I visit the TATC events with the most pleasure. It is not so simple to explain why something should be considered as an event, but these seem so to me. Perhaps due to the direct, intimate, informal atmosphere. Perhaps on the grounds of the unusually fresh programme. And being that one comes every week, it is thus an event series. Maybe this is the most precise wording for that which has been going on for several months in Budapest in two studios that are suited for such. The series is signed by two artists (Róza El-Hassan, János Sugár) and two curators (Dóra Hegyi, Emese Süvecz).
No one should be deceived by the location. There is more going on here than a studio exhibition. The aim is not to bring the artists’ own works into the public eye: according to the communiqué published by the organising group, they are guided by the intent to render critical discourse a part of the local scene. For which, certainly – let us admit, like a man (or woman) – there is a real need in Budapest. If here, the expressions “critical” or “discourse” are heard, many do not even know really what this means. The combination of the two words then is decipherable with even more difficulty. Nevertheless, it is worth combining them. This might be the tool that aids in orientation. Globally and locally. From which the zeitgeist-penetrated force field is delineated, within which each artwork is rendered perceptibly operative, gaining value and meaning – and that is an inspiration. Consequently something – a proposition, a statement, an action, a deed, a work of art – does not simply hang in the air, but connects with the thoughts of others. The fabrication of the oft-mentioned intellectual space: think globally, act locally.
Because, after all, what does criticism, for example, really mean? Something of the like that our literary agents know very well. (Sure, it’s easy for those whose primary means of expression is language, someone might say. But it is not the language that is lacking, but the discipline, I would hasten to add.) It does not mean, thus, boring descriptions and appraisals that operate with an obsolete vocabulary, are unreflective, that cry out into the wilderness, of the kind that characterises the discourse on art in these parts, but rather thematics that are based upon an international consensus and that build upon each other.
Each to his/her own weapon. The artist, the curator, the critic, the journal, the non-profit and the commercial gallery, the private and the public collection, the museum, and in this way they together weave the network that cultivates and engages, into which the audience can also become involved. Do it out of a commitment, for free or officially, for a fee (each according to his/her own temperament).
In the case of TATC, in any case, the commitment remains. A voluntary task, a private force, through private channels. Executed gracefully, exactly, well.
Content follows form. The presentation of artworks, and of strategies. Only non-mediated, direct physical experiences. An intentional elite, unconventional, slowly receptible. Hmm. Slow reception? Disassembled form? Elite as a value? " …the previously rightfully scorned elitism is rendered progressive, locally capable of resisting the manipulations, of a positive value", asserts the TATC communiqué.
In the spirit of recycled attention, the subtitle of the series, an artwork, a group of artworks, an artist is thrown into the common consciousness in an intensive rhythm, with a weekly regularity. They draw from an astonishingly wide spectrum: from caricaturists through young artists and international stars to the great masters, living and deceased, all worthy of mention. The selection is spontaneous, based on personal contacts and arising opportunities: for the most part, works and actions that are not in the spotlight, though they are deserving of such a place. An economy of attention.
The culmination until now, as far as I am concerned, has been the pictures of Diana Kingsley. Perhaps the organisers, too, felt this way, because they doubled this event. Not only galleries, but museums might also be envious of this chamber exhibition that took place twice (in changing forms) for an evening.
With diligence resuscitated under the influence of inspiration, allow me also to recycle an event-series. A memory of evenings of the value of an artwork, restoring the general condition, weaving a network. The Fast Culture evenings. They took place in the Kossuth Club, in the last century, in the mid-eighties. One street’s distance from the TATC base. They are close to each other, in space, and, strange as it may sound, in time as well. Never did I think seriously that time really stands still. Maybe habits don’t change quickly enough. Still we inhabit this space.