This year the Museum launches an international residency programme entitled “Platforms for Desire: The Urban Scene and Its Discontents” in the project room. The invited artists use the space as an open studio which, after a while, is turned into an exhibition space where the outcome of their residency is put on display. This year’s topic focuses on the visual representation of different levels of reality of urban spaces.
Sándor Bartha graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest in 1986 and moved to Budapest in 1999. Since then he has had two solo exhibitions in this city: in the MaMü Gallery in 2000 and in the Liget Gallery in 2002. He also exhibited in the Romanian Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001.
“I’ve never had a studio, so I’ve had to create a sort of a mental space for myself, filling the lack of a physical space. To a certain extent this gives me freedom: I would be on a tram, stroll around the streets, or simply close my eyes and contemplate. I would do it without the constraints of any physical space or measurable time. At best, before realizing a piece or a project, I would make some sketches and notes that I immediately lose.
Passage is a project that transforms my creative ideas into a certain structure of time (February 18—March 20) and space (the route of bus 16 and the project room). The way in which the ideas, that normally flow freely, are limited resemble the architectural structure of a passage. The metaphor of the passage has a multi-layered meaning since it is an open studio I intend to realize where the intimate process (creation) becomes ‘exterior’, giving way to dialogues and discussions with ‘strangers’ (the spectators). All the works, ideas, and ‘studio discussions’ that come into being during this period are integral parts of the project.” (Sándor Bartha)
