Rita Ackermann in Budapest
The 18th of November, the Budapest Ludwig Museum opens the exhibition of works by the Hungarian artist Rita Ackermann. The exhibition is curated by Kata Oltai, who has organized it around her latest works which are juxtaposed with some of her early works, within the space given to the Museum of Hungarian artists who have so far been not very well-known.
Rita Ackermann was born in Budapest in 1968. She studied Fine Arts in Hungary. In the late 90s she moved to New York, where she lives and works today. She started her career as a painter and then evolved to complex visual arts, influenced by trends and discussions on art in the United States and her studies at the School of Art in New York. Her complex works reflect her own transformations and became one of the favorites of the underground of New York at the end of the twentieth century.
Her works, interestingly combine different art languages. Music, image and plastic, which adds a variety of languages and particular expressions, typical of the youth or certain social classes that give her a sense of wholeness and content on the world around New York, as a summary of all cultures.
Her series of drawings and collages with pieces of poetic texts reflect the search for answers from a youth that lost its generous dreams for humanity and is now plunged into drugs, alcohol and promiscuous sex, almost like a collective suicide. She is not looking to respond to the existential anxiety with her work. Rather there are only questions, not interpretations or social criticism. Those tasks are left to the viewer, looking respond to and interpret the uncertainties about his/her generation.
Her perspective and story focuses on fertility and pornography. They are diametrically opposed to contrast the procreation and pleasure, in socioculturally terms they are decoupled. Ackermann tries to betray the location of a generation immersed in a society, which is constantly bombarded with messages about pleasure, but when people dare to do what the messages say, thy get punished by the law. This was reflected in her most interesting work Escorpionun, which juxtaposes images and texts.
This is the first stage of work, which opened the way to the stage where Ackermann examines art and the historical process contained and expressed through art, focusing on traditions and concepts of European painting, in contradiction to the U.S. . An interesting look that goes to the debate with the history of art.
Ackermanns work at the Ludwig is an interesting exhibition to appreciate, this symbolic imaginaries of the Hungarian artist, because all of them are her vision of two worlds, the origin and the arts and everyday life.
For more information http://ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=764&menuId=44
Nancy Guzman
The Danube, wide avenues, culture, romance and coffee is what you need for this fall. Just rent apartments in Budapest and come to enjoy the best moments of your life.
Translated by: Hans
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József Szolnoki: Homeopathic Reality in Budapest
Until the 31st of November, the Ernst Museum in Budapest exhibits the interesting exhibition Homeopathic Reality by the Hungarian conceptual artist József Készman. The exhibition explores the transience and the changes, aspects which have marked the memory of Hungary due to the great changes which theyve experimented in the last twenty years.
The exhibition explores through this word which defines a type of medicine, the social and political acts of Hungarian society. Homeopathy is a term which comes from the greek word homolos, which means similar, and pátosz which means suffering or harm. Homeopathy is based on curing illnesses with something similar to what caused the illness, and it has a deep holistic meaning, curing body and soul. A thesis argued by allopathic medicine, especially because its principle is that the patient receives every time concentrates dissolved in water, which will make a bigger impact on the damage.
The work of József Készman is based on this logic and it looks to promote comprehension in a similar way as homeopathic truths. His work tries to confirm the cultural and relational impacts aided by an investigation on the audience, where he explores onirical movements which he then puts into images in his videoart.
József Szolnoki, known as Szokó, is an important Hungarian artist who works with multimedia. He currently lives in Cologne and is a member of the Hungarian art team Kaos Camping.
In his work, he refers us to his childhood expressing the relevant things from that time of his life, which completely defined him, his angst to explain how he became into a communicator first and and then into a party member in the very same week. Confusion and angst are what his questions on coexistence of ideological systems different to the souls and minds of the people express.
Szolnoki looks for the essence and mystery of identity in his work Homeopathic Identity, looking at the Hungarian society as a body which has amplified all the relations with harm derived from the cultural influences which he has lived through in this process of changes which took place in the 20th century, and which are finally the cause of the appearance of identities.
Therefore, just like in homeopathy, Szolnoki proposes that the cure to all pain is to inoculate all that produces harm dissolved in an infinitesimal way, to manage to recover the health and soul of society. This deep work on social pain and angst where memory plays an important role, takes the spectator to get to know the spirit of Hungary.
A great conceptual proposal brought to you by Szolnoki in this exhibition, where he constructs and deconstructs formal language to give meaning to his aesthetic proposal, which has many political art codes.
For more information: http://www.mucsarnok.hu/new_site/index.php?lang=en&t=590&curmenu=106
Nancy Guzman
Hungary and its magic always motivate us to go and visit it. So if you have time and want to enjoy a rest in the stressing final days of the year, remember that you can have a great time in apartments in Budapest with views to the Danube, in one of the most exciting cities in Europe.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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European Film Gateway – The age of Hungarian silent film
Until the 25thof September at the Műcsarnok Palace in Budapest, the exhibition: European Film Gateway is – The age of Hungarian Silent Film will be presented, in which we will be able to appreciate a selection of silent films, photographs, posters and a special collection of the Hungarian National films Archives which is part of the European film Gateway.
The exhibition is based on a project launched in September 2008 by the European Film Gateway, with the participation of 12 countries, which contributed 20 film archives, in order to organize the film heritage of Europe. The process of collecting and digitizing films, photographs and posters has had a great response, achieving the digitization of 790,000 pieces, among which there are 1,200 posters ranging from the early twentieth century until 1990. Visitors can check the multimedia content of the exhibition, including 200 hours of the films of Béla Balálzs Studios.
In the exhibition you can see the research about silent films, since many films have been lost and the only way of rescue them is through newspaper clippings, publications, photographs of the artists and all that plot production.
Also, you will be able to appreciate works rarely seen before, as the silent film version of Aranyember or Golden Man directed by Sandor Korda and scripted by Laszlo Vajda in 1918. This film marked a milestone in the Hungarian film industry because of its interesting work of acting direction. Korda became one of the most prominent men in the British film industry, to the point of being knighted by Queen Elizabeth because of his contribution during the Second World War.
Sandor Kordas real name was Alexander, and he was born in Hungary in 1893. Son of a Jewish family, he worked as a journalist in the beginning of his carreer. He was an active participant in the formation of the Hungarian Socialist Republic. Since 1932 he lived in London and made films in several countries in Europe and in the United States.
Another silent film that has been preserved and displayed is Éjszaka by Utolsó or Last Night by the Hungarian director Jenő Janovics. Janovics was born in 1872 and belonged to a group of filmmakers from Transylvania. He was a film director, screenwriter and actor in silent films. He directed 30 films during the 20s and the public acclaimed them all.
Aphrodite by the Hungarian director Alfred Deésy is another of the silent films that will be shown in this exhibition. This film was released in 1918. Deésyn was born in 1877 and worked in the film industry until his death in 1961. He was a film director, screenwriter and the most acclaimed Hungarian silent film actor. His films were famous for representing simple elements, always with a high burden of melodrama, which gave very good results with the public.
For more information
http://www.mucsarnok.hu/new_site/index.php?lang=en&t=586&curmenu=103
Nancy Guzman
If you like silent films, this exhibition is a good experience to enjoy. So stay in apartments in Budapest and attend this exhibition, delight yourself with the best of the silent film industry.
Translated by: Hans
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