The exhibition Techniques of Evasion presents a selection from the collection of the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art based on the works of Hungarian artists of the 1960s and '70s. The display focuses on the artistic positions that were not only pushing at the conventional aesthetic boundaries, but also queried the social and political establishment of the authoritarian state.
The main tools of neo-avant-garde practices – the body, the language and the street/nature – can be seen as ‘techniques of evasion’ emerged under the conditions of censorship, surveillance and the restriction of freedom. Experiencing such dichotomies as official and unofficial, permitted and prohibited, public and private, conformity and nonconformity, artists often created new dimensions of reality: parallel worlds, utopias, dystopias and imaginary domains. The methods of the artists represented in the exhibition are ranging from the subversive appropriation of objects, symbols, ideologies (cobblestone, sickle and hammer, five-pointed star, May Day parade) to the critique of the bureaucratic structures of the regime, and the mocking of power by revealing its dysfunctionality or triviality.
Through conceptual photography, collages, sculptures, urban interventions, performances, mail art works, visual poetry and artist's books, the exhibition demonstrates an alternative sphere of critical thinking and creative ways of living under totalitarian rule.
Exhibited Artists:
Gábor ATTALAI, András BARANYAY, László BEKE, Tibor CSIKY, Orsolya DROZDIK, Ferenc FICZEK, György GALÁNTAI, István GELLÉR B., Gyula GULYÁS, Tibor HAJAS, Károly HALÁSZ, László HARIS, Zsigmond KÁROLYI, Judit KELE, Katalin LADIK, László LAKNER, Dóra MAURER, Gyula PAUER, Sándor PINCZEHELYI, Tamás SZENTJÓBY, Kálmán SZIJÁRTÓ, Lenke SZILÁGYI, Bálint SZOMBATHY, Endre TÓT
Curated by Giuseppe Garrera, József Készman, Viktória Popovics, Sebastiano Triulzi
Venue: Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
An exhibition of the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Co-organizer: Hungarian Academy of Rome (Accademia d'Ungheria in Roma)
Promoted by National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Rome the Capital City – Department for Cultural Growth, Azienda Speciale Palaexpo
Special thanks to ALFÖLDI Collection, Balázs SZLUKA Collection, Vintage Gallery, Judit KELE, Katalin LADIK, Sándor PINCZEHELYI, Bálint SZOMBATHY
