2026. 03. 27. – 04. 30.
Budapest IX. Drégely utca 19.
Opening: 2026. március 26. 18.00
Exhibiting Artists:
Mohamed ABDELKARIM, SAMMY BALOJI&FILIP DE BOECK, Tina BARA, Rufina BAZLOVA, Mohamed BOUROUISSA, CSORBA Eszter, FARKAS Aliz, FÁTYOL Viola, Andreas FOGARASI, KOLTAY Dorottya Szonja, Halina SKIBNIEWSKA, SZEBENI András, SZIDU Evdoxia
Contributor: HODWORKS
Curated by
LÁZÁR Eszter, NAGY Edina
On view
Tuesday–Sunday 4–8 PM
“It’s good as long as it hurts because we know we’re alive.” The title of Eszter Csorba’s painting might as well serve as the motto of the exhibition. The words of elderly patients waiting in the corridor of the Rákoskeresztúr polyclinic seem to continue echoing within the walls of the former medical facility chosen as the exhibition’s venue. When we experience physical pain, we place our trust in doctors, hoping for a cure. But what about pain that cannot be localised in the body; pain that remains “invisible”? Such kinds of pain, and the mental challenges connected to them, are treated as the neglected stepchildren of the care system to this day.
Formulated almost half a century ago, the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata on primary health care is still relevant in its assertion that health means a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” Achieving this requires the contribution of not only the healthcare system, but also the social and economic sectors. In contrast, our prevailing notions of health still tend to be confined to maintaining physical capacity and sustaining performance, while mental and social dimensions are increasingly marginalised. Our physical and mental integrity as well as our overall well-being are founded on a sense of personal security – something that, much like the right to primary health care, is in fact by far not equally guaranteed to all.
For the most part, the works presented in the exhibition draw on examples of institutional healthcare from the Cold War era which, by their very nature –whether oppressive, progressive, or paradoxically combining the two – reflect the ambivalence of the era. Comparing the healthcare infrastructures of the former socialist bloc and colonised countries can also be illuminating with regard to the forms and scope in which certain innovative initiatives could appear in colonial and later postcolonial contexts. When we speak about health institutions, we tend to imagine concrete physical spaces: a hospital, a psychiatric institution, or a sanatorium. The exhibition’s routes are likewise organised along such spaces – for example, a mental asylum, a night sanatorium for workers, or a space of enforced invisibility such as “Tripperburg.” These spatial categories are not only linked to particular types of illness and specific measures but also illustrate the historical transformation of these.
The exhibition forms part of a long-term education, research, and exhibition project launched in the autumn of 2024. The term “bare life” in the title is borrowed from the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. In the Agambenian sense, bare life refers to the mere fact of biological existence, far removed from complete physical, mental and social well-being. The exhibition’s title refers to those condemned to bare life – people left to fend for themselves by precisely those social and economic sectors that should be providing the best possible health for them.