Friss (Fresh) 2012

Arpad Szigeti, “Hungray”

Friss 2012, up at Kogart Haz on Andrassy until October 12, is an annual show of recent graduates here in Budapest, and as the show is named “Fresh” you can imagine its idea is to introduce new artists to the scene. This year new graduates from Switzerland were also included. There were some really lovely works, and I thought very internationally engaged, which the curators selected and organized around the theme of empathy/manipulation. This theme came with a warning from the curators: that no one was innocent. I can’t speak to that, but here are some of the works I found interesting and accomplished.

Otto Szabo, Ethnographic Research

Otto Szabo’s installation of an embroidered veil and photographs illustrate how Muslim head coverings became a part of traditional Hungarian folk costumes. The floating head in front of old photographs was an affecting and interesting visual object, and the research behind it fascinating. This installation lies more on the empathetic side of the continuum the curators set up.

Anna Gyurkovics, image from the photo series Papa

As does Anna Gyurkovics’s photography series Papa, which has a great quality of light, intimacy, and immediacy. More of the artist’s work is up on Flikr.

Zsofia Toth, Keretek

Zsofia Toth’s Keretek, or Frames, are large paintings that take on some of the traditions around the presentation of art. This speaks more to the manipulation side of the continuum.

Balint Radoczy, Still from video What We Are

Balint Radoczy‘s video installation, What We Are, shows detritus in the confluence of a particular bend of the Tiber, floating and circulating in an endless loop. The beautiful colors of the trash belies their worthless, even dirty, state.

David Siepert, image from Censored Dresses

From the Swiss contingent, David Siepert took advertisements from magazines where flesh had been covered over. Then he hired people to remake the conservative dresses, turning Muslim attitudes toward showing flesh into real clothes that didn’t previously exist and showed them in a fashion show and with photographic evidence. His well-executed project, like Szabo’s in that it puts cultural norms in the spotlight, brings  an anthropological approach to culture together with both empathy and manipulation.

 

ARC Poster Exhibition, Budapest

ARC‘s exhibition of billboards at Ötvenhatosok square below the park asked artists to address the theme “…with good cheer and prosperity” from the line “God bless the Hungarians with good cheer and prosperity” from the national anthem.

Given the economy, it’s not surprising that many responses are not very happy (although I still have a lot I want to try to decipher through Google Translate). They do offer very interesting insight into the Hungarian mind and situation. The explanatory text also mentions how the free expression exemplified here would have been unimaginable 20 years ago.  (And if you, as an American like myself, might be tempted to dismiss this with an offhand ‘so what’, check out this article about current Czech politics and libel from The Economist.)

Message to God, Németh Adreinn, Farkas Júlia, Koncz Gabriella, Szabolc András, Sebestyén, Eszter

In memoriam TV Teddy, Peter Szabina

Dare to Dream, Megszűnt könyvtár

Mentality, Szabo Julcsi

Statue erection game, Kovács István Haykovats

Viktor Orbán Petting Zoo, Kovács Ambrus

Ki a magyar?

Welcome to the Hungary 8-bit version