Sugár, János: Dirty Money (2008)

János Sugár – an internationally known artist and teacher at the art academy – used stencil and spray-paint to create the following text on the facade of a privately owned exhibition space in central Budapest: “Wash your dirty money with my art”. The owner filed a criminal complaint against the perpetrator, and the court handed down a suspended sentence of 5 months in jail. The sentence seems rather harsh considering the small size and sophisticated appearance of the graffiti, as well as the cost of restoring the original condition of the wall. The action of the artist most likely enraged the owner – whose business venture focused on presenting popular shows and the management of up-and-coming artists – due to its critical content. The venture – that has since gone bankrupt causing the exhibition space to close – treated young artists as commodity, who could be turned into viable products within a short few years by way of some investment and the application of appropriate marketing techniques. Sugár used his public action to question the businessman’s genuine intent and competence, in turn the man addressed declared the action to be provocation and “non-art”. “When the work was shown at Műcsarnok | Kunsthalle Budapest I felt that the essence of the piece would be lost if it stayed in this safe and elitist setting. It only becomes relevant on the street. [...] I was interested in finding a way to make an otherwise not so obvious position apparent.” – said the artist. K.Sz.