For Example Me

A five-day exhibition of seven students from the Intermedia Program of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts at Labor

exhibition opens: 23 March 2010, Tuesday, 7 PM
a short concert by Pastorz Special begins at 8 PM

on view: 24 – 28 March 2010
open: 6 – 8 PM

exhibiting artists:
Boglárka Bordás
László Horváth
Zoltán Huszti
Barbara Ipsics
Nikolett Pályi
Nóra Surányi
Annamária Szentpétery

In 2009, during a one-week course I held at the Intermedia Department – and in part through becoming familiar with the students’ works – the idea came up that an exhibition should be created which (as a kind of well-positioned cross-section) presents the individual and strongly personal language of soon-to-graduate students. The intention of self-observation and self-examination is apparent not only in the forms of expression, but also in the content – the themes that are brought up and processed. This, in many cases, is an external kind of attention – placed outside, but looking back on, the self – which renders the “I” (with all its qualities and stories) the subject of analysis, as a kind of example.

The processing of real stories, the conjuring of personal environment and self-depiction are, thus, mere tools for conveying some abstract and general message. As a consequence, a number of works – in spite of the personal motivation – are rather distant and enigmatic.

As for the photos and the videos, these works can also be regarded as documents of performative events, where the performers test situations as meanings through their own example – by placing themselves into these situations.

Hajnal Németh

tranzitblog offline – open editorial session

An open editorial session will take place in Labor with the participation of the current editors of tranzitblog (Eszter Götz, Sándor Hornyik, József Mélyi, Levente Polyák). Besides the screening of a film, the editors will introduce their proposals for further topics. The editors are open to questions  and suggestions about their work.

On this event, József Mélyi and Levente Polyák will introduce  their conception of a new blog idea, which has struck during tranzitblogging. This evolving new conception, which is in formulation will have the name „Spanyolviasz” (a Hungarian phrase for inventions already invented) and will be about the archeology of the public spaces, art and architercureof the Kádár-regime (1956-1989).

„Zsebből Mozit” Movie out of the pocket

2010.02.24. 17:25 | blog | Götz Eszter

The film, „Előttünk az élet” (we have the whole life to live) by Andor Szilágyi was screened last week at this year’s Hungarian Film Week in Budapest. According to its striking advertisement, this is the first movie made with cell phone. Of course, this is not entirely true so. As most of the teenagers had made films with their mobiles, professionals has also started to fashion this matter. In 2007, a cell phone film festival was arranged in Paris, and in this year, the fourth such event was held in the Centre Pompidou. The latest pieces are on the net ranging form a music clip in rococo style and a film about a journey to a two-character drama, in which the second person singular is the cell phone itself. This shot suggests an ironic transformation of the philosophy of Martin Buber. All in all, there’s a great variety.

Attracted by Buildings: Architectural Icons and Object Sexuality

2010.02.09. 12:23 | blog | Levente Polyak

In the middle of December I arranged a talk titled „Architecture and Obsession”. By this talk I tried to circumvene the topic of the Artchitectureal Film Review, for which I selected films plotting extereme emotions, attachments and also superhuman endeavours connected to buildings. At the beginning of the talk I played a part of the film titled Berlinmuren by Lars Laumann. The film introduces Eija-Riita Berliner-Mauer who, driven by her irresistible affection, married the Berlin Wall in 1979. Though my intention was rather to inspire than to provoke, the reaction of my partners was dismissive: they interpreted the confession of the Sweedish woman as an artistic action, especially the fact that she had documented them in her internet achive: „If somebody has so intimate relationship with a building, they will not expose these to this extent.”

Images and spaces in motion. What is tranzitblog going to be about for the next three months?

2010.01.28. 21:22 | blog | tranzitblog

Levente Polyák: Architecture is a branch of art which everybody can feel some connection to – buildings surround us, structure our everyday life, help and hinder our activities.  In spite of these, some technical contexts of architecture are hidden an uninterpretable for the public. However, architecture do not only mean the actual raising of the buildings because, as a discipline dealing with spaces and social interactions within these spaces, architecture reaches beyond the structuring of the physical objects. According to Michael Hays, architecture is the intervention in symbols and semiotic processes on the margin of social order, a particular way of the social production of symbols, the main role of which is to generate conceptions. Thus, it is not accidental, that the questions of architecture and the architectural environment has been examined as much by the creators and theoreticians of visual culture as by the architects. Inspired by this broad definition of architecture, we try to observe the recent problems of architecture in connection with psychology, social relations, film, fine arts, cartography and internet as well.

Eszter Götz:  After the political transitions in 1989,  not only the new political, economical system was a task to be learned but the use of urban spaces have also changed radically. Instead of the political demands and regulations, actions, opportunities and, of course, traps were opened, but it is certain, that subjective topography became a question for several generations  simultaneously. The mental map of Budapest, that was valid before 1989, was now closed, petrified, and it has come to loose its connection with the places and structure of the city today. The contemporary gesture searching for the places and non-places of the city finds its inspiration in various art-forms. Among them there are the city-interpretations of the latest Hungarian films presented in the Hungarian Film Week in Budapest, but also exhibitions, actual ideas which shape the city, as well as the manyfold relationship of  houses, streets, and men.

Sándor Hornyik: Twenty years after the political changes in Hungary, it is still an interesting question in our transitional region, that how different aesthetic and political ideologies mingle in the practices of the creation of images, objects and spaces. It is also a crucial question that how these particular ideologies (eg. Modernism, postmodernism, aktivism, nationalism) exploit the various forms of art media. A related essential problem is that according to which ideologies can art media, like film, photo or architecture, examine critically their own products or certain systems of society and politics. Perhaps the prime task of contemporary criticism should be the analytic disassociation of these ideologies as well as their analytic interpretation within their system of values. Such  criticism would perhaps contribute to make a clear vision of the objective and theoretical spaces and possible functions of art.

József Mélyi: Some films presented at the exhibition about the history of Balázs Béla Studio show the art sites of Budapest of the sixties and the seventies, sometimes in the focus, sometimes on the periferies. These places range from flats to the exhibition spaces of the Iparterv, from public spaces to studios. It is difficult to grasp why these places are different form others, or if they did have less or more freedom than the places of art today. It is also difficult to designate what the most important places of art today are and if there is an overlap with the places of 30 or 40 years ago. So hard it is to forecast the artistic map of Budapest of 30 or 40 years later. Will the recently planned museum quarter come to realization? Will the Museum of Fine Arts merge with the Palace of Arts or with the National Gallery? What will happen then with the Labor Movement Museum?

Read the rest of this entry »

Crosstalk Video Presentations with Judit Kopper

The Crosstalk Video Presentations series was launched in 2008 within the framework of the crosstalk video art festival, Budapest.

Hungarian and international video and media artists are invited for this discussion program comprised of a series of single-evening sessions. The goal of the events is, firstly, to present artists who work in contemporary Hungarian media art together with representatives of the international scene, and, secondly, to introduce and support video art as such. The series has had over 20 invited guests so far.

Invited guests for next session: Judit Kopper and András Sólyom

Date: 10 March 2010, Wednesday, 7 PM

The series entitled Videovilág (Video World) was launched by Hungarian Television (MTV) at the dawn of the regime-change and aired monthly with late night shows. The program was considered a unique phenomenon both in Eastern and Western Europe, as the popularisation of video twenty years ago signified more than the mere emergence of new motion picture technology. In the volatile tension of the political climate of those times, the possibilities presented by private – uncontrollable – handheld cameras paralysed censorship. Everyone was documenting the protests and their dispersals, the speeches, the mass assemblies and television programs. Home archives were expanding, tapes were traded and swapped, copied and illegally distributed. Not only political videos were popular; home-copying of hard-to-find art films, as well as porno and horror films, made for lucrative business for those with two or three VHS players which could be connected up.

In addition to independent documentary film makers, video artists also made their appearance on the Hungarian scene by the end of the 80s. These artists replaced the brush with a camera and were curious to try this new tool which was easy to handle and made shooting much simpler. In the 80s, video art made a strong debut on the international scene. European video festivals – Osnabrück, Hága, Berlin – invited experimental artists as well as famous and prestigious theoreticians and presented their video works along with conferences organised during these days-long events. In addition to traditional panel paintings and sculptures, the works of the eminent representatives of video art were greeted with equal – or even heightened – enthusiasm by the curators of the great international events of visual arts, such as the Venice Biennial and the Documenta in Kassel. And, of course, such “review of troops” in the fine arts world would have been inconceivable without the great star – the Pope – of video art, Nam June Paik.

It was also at this time that computers were becoming popular. Hungarian computer graphics artists, computer musicians and animators quickly, albeit not immediately, made it to the international forefront. As of 1985, an international review of the world’s computer artists has been held every year in Linz, where the exploration of the interaction of science and art with the invitation and participation of renowned theoreticians continues even today. It is also here that the Prix Ars Electronica prize is awarded yearly to the best artist in each of the continuously expanding categories.

Soon – in the early 90s – the Hungarian audience could also become familiar with the latest developments in video and computer art thanks to C3 at the exhibitions organised at Műcsarnokban / Kunsthalle Budapest, where the interfaces of art, technology, science and even politics were analysed with the help of international presenters.

It was this political, artistic, technological and intellectual explosion that set the scene for Videovilág (Video World) and later the program entitled Médiamix (Media Mix), which attempted to follow and communicate developments and results from both the home and international fronts. In addition to relaying information, it also often took on a creative function, whereby artists were given an opportunity to use the show to assist them in bringing to life new works.

Judit Kopper editor-producer and András Sólyom director-DP are behind both television series. Read the rest of this entry »

The World of Video and Media 1988 – 2009

Exhibition opening: 4 march, 7 PM
Opening speech by: Miklós Peternák
On view 5 – 18 March 2010
on weekdays from 4 to 9 PM

The television program which aired monthly in the late night hours – with its own regular audience, whom we would today refer to as fans – had 55 broadcasts in a 5-year period surrounding the change of regime. The series was ended by the media war, as the production offices that had been created by Elemér Hankiss – then-president of Hungarian Television – were shut down, including the FRIZ production office, with producer Judit Kopper, which was responsible for the program Videovilág.

Judit Kopper remained the producer and presenter of Videovilág for the full five years of it transmission. The series was initially directed by András Monory-Mész, then, after the first five shows, by András Sólyom. The first few broadcasts were hosted by András Bálint Kovács, later Videovilág aired without a host.

Hungary’s Videovilág was regarded as an internationally renowned program during the years of its broadcast. Its participants continue to have close personal relationships with the makers of the show. A number of international video archives continue to distribute the series even today. Hungarian and international universities analyse Videovilág as part of the curriculum.

Top Hungarian media analysts, theoreticians and artists participated in the making of the series, many of whom soon became leading figures in media education at the official, university level: Tamás Waliczky, Tibor Szemző, László feLugossy, Ákos Szilágyi, Péter György, Miklós Peternák, János Sugár, József Tillmann, András Bálint Kovács.

Interviewees included world renowned representatives of the international media scene: Peter Weibel, Vilém Flusser, Noam Chomsky, Antoni Muntadas, Woody and Steina Vasulka, Gusztáv Hámos, Jeffrey Shaw, Paul Garrin, the winners of Ars Electronica, curatots from The Kitchen, from MOMA, vjs from Music TV, Van Gogh TV / Mike Hentz and Karel Dudesek, Peter Callas, Laurie Anderson, John Lasseter, Kathy Rae Huffmann, Nina Czeglédy, Zbigniew Rybzyński…

Médiamix (Media Mix) 1992 – 2009
17 years running, 180 broadcasts

Hungarian Television (MTV) broadcast Médiamix was in tandem with Videovilág for some time. When the latter went off air, Médiamix remained the only television program in the Hungarian media that dealt with the cultural, sociological, political, technological, and art questions of the media. In over 17 years on the air, viewers of MTV watched 180 shows on media art and media politics.

The first broadcast in February 1992 covered the virtual reality exhibition of “Imagine” in Monte Carlo – quite a sensation at the time – and the last one in May 2009 reported on the phenomenon of music videos spreading on You Tube.

Between the two transmissions, in seventeen years of broadcasting, viewers could watch reportages on the world’s largest visual art and media festivals (Linz, Velence, Kassel) and events (Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle Budapest exhibitions, Meta Forums), media revolutions (Bucharest, Lithuania, Moscow), the relationship between war and the media (Bosnia, Iraq), as well as politicians know how to use the media and politicians who don’t. The role of the media in the elections was addressed both in the East and in the USA (Tsar Yeltsin, USA 2000).

In recent years, Médiamix focused on such network events as the role of You Tube, the possibilities of creative commons, the effects on society of bloggers, vloggers, viruses, hackers, and the new media in general.

Médiamix was originally directed and edited by András Sólyom and Judit Kopper, but later, alongside editor in chief Judit Kopper, dozens of others joined the staff of the program:
László Kistamás, Dóra Csernátony, Miklós Fáy, László Csáki, János Krasznai, Barbara Sterk, Szilvia Seres.