2021/12/14 18:00
What does architectural heritage mean? What does a manmade landscape could tell us about? What narratives do the buildings carry? How can we connect today with a contemporary approach to the past? How can we get over it, transform it, touch it without ignoring its existence? What are the rules for cohabitation? The artworks shown in the exhibition are in contrast with the place however they accept their differences and do not try to compete with them. Carefully observing the architectural solutions of the former canteen, the materials - which serve a function and the design of the era - and the connections of the spaces, the everyday cycle of an imaginary past is outlined. The exhibited artworks bring to life this now-vacated, abandoned area: they create new systems of relations, re-interpret and dissolve petrified signs. The works try to find their location within this foreign space: some of their motifs are related to the details of the built environment, in other cases, the scale of the artwork adds or reverses the basic interpretability of the space. The artworks of the exhibition initiate situations in which the visitor can think about the space and the works of art at the same time, but the common factor of all gives the unity of the show.
The participants of the group exhibition titled The Presence of an Abandoned Past are young artists who have been working and creating in the Nyolcésfél Cultural Centre and Studio House for almost a year. The building of Nyolcésfél is the modernist wing built next to the former József telephone exchange, in which Telekom's switchboards and various telecommunication systems recently operated. The cultural centre dreamed of in the building accommodates almost a hundred creators (artists, musicians, applied artists). The staff of Nyolcésfél wants to create a cultural reception area on the 7th floor of the building, in the former canteen space, which will host exhibitions and cultural events. The group exhibition debuts the space and presents the works of the artists who run their studios in the building., as well as the exhibition space itself, which this time The exhibition precedes the renovation of the area so visitors can see the original environment of the canteen. The artworks are connected to the location, the past, the story, the architectural space, the built materials, the details and each other.
Exhibiting artists
Máté BARTHA, Tom BENEDEK, Ákos CSERE, Réka CSORBA, Morganne ELKINS, Máté FUCHS, Martin GÓTH, Levente HAJDÚ, Evelin Anna ILYÉS, Barnabás LAKATOS GELLÉRI, László KARÁCSONYI, Dóra KARAKAI, Konrád KASZÁS, Csaba KIS RÓKA, Borbála KOMESZ, Diána KOMRÓCZKI, Orsolya MACZÁK,Panni MAROSI, Gábor SUHAJDA, Imola Nelli SZILÁGYI, Barbara SZLÁVIK, Csenge VASS, Réka VIDRA
Curated by
Luca PETRÁNYI, Fanni SOLYMÁR