The exhibition Budapest Box is based on the concept of the artist as curator. The phenomenon of artists acting as curators is, by no means, new in the history of the institution of art: it will suffice to mention Courbet's case who, in the middle of the 19th century, was obliged to erect a temporary space for the exhibition of his own, officially rejected works, given he wanted to show them to the public. For this reason he can be regarded as one of the first examples of the artist-curator, and his space as the first 'artist-run space'.
The exhibition aims at showing the activity of those projects, and (virtual or real) spaces that have been initiated by artists for the past twelve years in Budapest. Quite a few of these are still active (Kirakat, Kis Varsó, kmkk, IPUT, ikOn, JAVA, Ágnes Szabics, index, Videospace) which is a sign of the growing intensity of this kind of activity in Budapest.
The period that appears in the exhibition starts approximately in June, 1989 when a group of young artists, who later became known as the Újlak Group, made an exhibition in the derelict Hungária Bath. During the same summer, the group got hold of the unused building of the Újlak Cinema and made several one-night long solo and group shows.
The birth of these artists' initiatives is always an indicator of the deficiencies of the official institutional framework. The artists create and fund parallel institutions that are run without any financial support, with a minimum budget, thus trying to bridge the gaps of the existing institutional system.
The exhibition itself focuses on the Budapest art scene, and is accompanied by so-called satellite events (concerts, panel discussions, lectures, presentations etc.) in September with the participation of other projects within the country and also from abroad that function as models for further initiatives.
Another extremely important element of this show is related to the so-far non-existing system of artist's fee in Hungary. The Ludwig Museum Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art wishes to make a symbolic step in changing this practice and to pay a fee for the participating artists. By this, we hope to raise the social acceptance and value of the visual arts.
Participants: Balázs Beöthy, János Fodor–Tibor Horváth: JAVA / BBS, Folyamat Galéria (Gábor Császári, Adèle Eisenstein), Hejettes Szomlyazók, IPUT (superintendant: Tamás St. Auby), Kirakat Galéria (Sárosi Anita, Szörényi Beatrix), kmkk (Róza El-Hassan, Dóra Hegyi, János Sugár, Emese Süvecz), Kis Varsó, Leseraum 2 (Luchezar Boyadijev, Róza El-Hassan, Milica Tomić), Manamana (Miklós Erhardt–Tibor Várnagy), Attila Menesi–Christoph Rauch, Milieu et L'EGO (Balázs Beöthy, Csaba Nemes, Rolland Pereszlényi), Mű-Terem Kiállító (Tamás Kopasz), Négy Nagy Gazdag (elek is, Péter Hecker, Attila Nagy), Ágnes Szabics: Túlélési gyakorlat, "Török" Fürdő (Adèle Eisenstein, Hilda Kozári), Újlak Group, Beáta Veszely, Videospace Budapest (Eike, Hajnal Németh, Gyula Várnai), www.ikon.hu (© Endre Koronczi)
Curators: Dóra Hegyi and Katalin Timár
