In focus: Young Contemporary Hungarian Artists at derkó.pécsi.2014

This year's Easter weekend was marked by a visit to Budapest's Kunsthalle contemporary art museum located in 1895 eclectic-neoclassicism building in the Heroes' square. Strolling at night after a heavy Hungarian dinner, I have noticed a big announcement of Shirin Neshat's exhibition and my visit followed the next day.  

Little I knew about the contemporary art in Hungary, so the discovery of quite a few names paid off my early Sunday morning pilgrimage. The group exhibition consisted of Derkovits Gyula Fine Arts Scholarship holders' artworks. My  favorite were István Felsmann's Lego Relief pieces and witty pieces and a witty installation of three maneki-neko sculptures playing music instruments as well as Gábor Koós's Budapest Diary large-scale prints and wooden stencils (I have been quite lucky to try to make some on my own in Autumn 2013). 

 István Felsmann, Hospital, acryl, lego, 2010

 István Felsmann, Hospital, acryl, lego, 2010. Detail

István Felsmann, D.M.Z, print, lego, 65X65, 2013

 István Felsmann, D.M.Z, print, lego, 65X65, 2013. Detail

István Felsmann, Newspaper, lego, newspaper, 34X45, 2011

István Felsmann, Newspaper, lego, newspaper, 34X45, 2011. Detail

 István Felsmann, Composition, lego, paper, 34X45, 2010

István Felsmann, Booklet, lego, booklet, 34X45, 2009

István Felsmann, Maneki-neko Playing Bass, installation, 2014

Gábor Koós's Budapest Diary series, print, 2014

 Gábor Koós's Budapest Diary series, stencil, 2014

 Gábor Koós's Budapest Diary series, print, 2014

Gábor Koós's Budapest Diary series, stencil, 2014

Works of Judit Rita Raboczky reminded me a variation of Pawel Althamer's 2011 commission for Deutsche Guggenheim, Venetians large-scale sculpture installation for 2013 Venice Biennial while the installation of Szanyi Borbàla - to another Polish artist NeSpoon whose works are based on lace patterns usually inserted into urban landscapes. However, for this associative exercise, there is a separate post.

Judit Rita Raboczky, Looking in the Mirror, 2011, achor

Judit Rita Raboczky, Looking in the Mirror, 2011, achor. Detail

Judit Rita Raboczky, 2011, achor

Pawel Althamer at Venice 2013 Biennale with a variation of his 2011 commission for Deutsche Guggenheim, Venetians large-scale sculpture installation

Szanyi Borbàla, YSA PUR III, 2013, iron

NeSpoon, Franciacorta project for Art Kitchen Foundation. Source: artist's Behance page

Click here for more photos and videos

Amsterdam-Budapest and the focus on Iranian art

Earlier this month I have visited Amsterdam-based FOAM photography museum to check Kaveh Golestan's The Citadel 1975-77 photo documentary project of Tehran's Shahr-e No red light district. Literally translated as a "New City" Shahr-e No was an old 1920 neighborhood that got surrounded by walls in 1953 exclusively inhabited by female and young male prostitutes. The entrance to the ghetto where prostitutes were walking on the streets semi-naked was through one gate and only men were allowed to enter the citadel. 

Few weeks before the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution the activists burned and demolished the "sin city" with undisclosed number of residents trapped inside, the survived inhabitants were later executed as a part of post-revolutionary cultural cleaning. The area has been converted into a recreational zone with a park and a pond. Thus, Golestan's photo archive is one of the few remained documentations that trace back nowadays unspoken and shameful part of Tehran city's history. Women most of whom he befriended during almost two year-lasting project are humanized through the lens of Kaveh's camera that captures natural, non-staged moments of their daily lives. Vintage photographs together with a newspaper compilation, Golestan's diaries and other materials such as Iranian authorities documents as well as audio-taped interviews of the women living in the citadel immersed me in their ambience of misery and despear. 

Shahr-e No's citadel 1920 plan

Kaveh Golestan's The Prostitutes series, 1975-1977. Source: artist's website

This week theme of Shahr-e No unexpectedly reappeared during my Hungarian Easter getaway at Budapest's Mûcsarnok with New-York based Shirin Neshat's small, but very powerful video installation exhibition. This first Budapest solo show comprises from a surrealistic two-channel 1993 Rapture video shot in Marocco and a twenty-minute chapter Zarin where the leading role is played by a Hungarian actress Orsi Tóth. This 2005 piece is about Shahr-e No resident Zarin who decided to flee the ghetto and her humiliating present. A part of the artist's bigger reclaimed project based on 1989 Women Without Men novel by Shahrnush Parsipur, this video chapter is aesthetically and eloquently reveals an unpleasant and controversial topic of women in society and their sexual exploitation.

Stills from Shirin Neshat's 2005 Zarin video 

Shirin Neshat's 2009 Silver Lion awarded Women Without Men trailer with English subtitles

Shirin Neshat's 2009 Silver Lion awarded Women Without Men full movie in Farsi

Post-screening discussion with Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari

Note: Kaveh Golestan's exhibition in FOAM lasts until May 4, 2014 and Shirin Neshat's - April 27, 2014.