At the Institute of Contemporary Art, Dunaújváros (ICA-D), a group exhibition by members of the Studio of Young Artist’s Association (SYAA) is currently up. Arranged in thematic groups, one installation I was very intrigued by was “News From the Future” by Péter Szabó and Csaba Szentesi. The artist’s took artwork from the collection of ICA-D and arranged it as furniture, creating as close to a livable home as possible when you use paintings for a bed and sculpture for lightening. In this piece, artworks made in between 1989 and 2010 were used, including those of local artists, the younger generation of artists and internationally recognized Hungarian names. The premise of the work is to imagine a future time when a homeless person moves into a derelict building and must create a living space out of what is left behind.
This is not just a broad commentary on the utility of art. The ICA-D faces substantial funding problems from the local government, and may indeed shut down next year. So the future where this building may become derelict, at least in an a metaphorical sense, is perhaps not so far off. This is unfortunate in itself, but so is the question also raised here, about how the institution’s collection will be cared for and shown, if at all.
