ARTMargins

Contemporary art across the evolving global peripheries

Monthly Archive: August 2003

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by Hedvig Turai (Budapest) ·

Special Section Focus: Public Art in Hungary

On Moscow Square, Budapest, it is the morning rush hour.(I would like to thank Edit András and Tyrus Miller for discussion and revision of my text.) A young man appears to be walking on the wall of the subway station building, defying gravity. Those who had arrived earlier and stayed till the end of the performance, of course, already knew the trick: A metal construction, concealed by his clothes, sustaining him, making it a real spectacle.

People stop a minute, stare up, guess at what he is doing and why; others take no notice at all and pass

… Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Erzsébet Tatai (Hungary) ·

Focus: Public Art in Hungary (Edited an compiled by Hedvig Turai): Interviews by Erzsébet Tatai

Art historian Erzsébet Tatai questioned three Hungarian artists who are strongly involved in public art. Róza El-Hassan conceived the public art event, Moszkva tér or Gravitation. Although Tibor Várnagy and Miklós Erhardt did not take part in the events of Gravitation, they have been actively involved in public art projects since the 1990s. All three started their careers at different times and with different backgrounds; however, their activities kept converging in the past few years.

TIBOR VÁRNAGY (1957) artist, curator, art critic

Since the 1980s, Tibor Várnagy has been an important representative of alternative art in Hungary. His activity is … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Exhibition Reviews

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 by Edit András (Budapest) ·

Focus: Public Art in Hungary (Edited and compiled by Hedvig Turai: From Great Utopia to Real Utopias

< rotor >, “real*utopia”, Graz (May 24 through October 26, 2003) 

This summer the most significant contemporary art events in Europe could be characterized with such notions as the “Balkans” (In search of Balkania, Balkan Consulat, Graz; Blut und Honey, Vienna), “war” (Kunst und Krieg, Graz; Attack, Vienna), and “utopia”.

Utopia, in turn, is connected to the idea of public art. Almost the whole continent has been touched by this notion’s ripples. Presently at the Venice Biennial, it is represented by an independent section in the Arsenal.

The Valencia Biennial (curated by Loránd Hegyi) is also organized around this idea, … Read more