BUDAPEST ART FAIR 2010

Modern and contemporary – till 10 p.m.

In focus: modern and contemporary
As part of its overhaul, the Budapest Art Fair will henceforth incorporate two separate fairs, each one catering for a different clientele. Contemporary and modern galleries will exhibit in Műcsarnok, while those specializing in antiquities will move into the Museum of Ethnography for a few days in early December. As always, the Budapest Art Fair will present the best Hungarian galleries in the company of traders from Paris and London, offering the latter a chance to meet Hungarian collectors and art-lovers.

Following international success
The past few months have been pretty eventful for many of the contemporary galleries. Following the fairs of Berlin, Strasbourg, Basel, Hong Kong and New York, they will now join forces in Budapest to show what artists believe in, who gallery owners put their hope in, how the modern and the contemporary scene fare in 2010 – indeed, to reveal the wealth of creative universes the coexist in our time.

The age of optimism
Photo, painting and video art will equally be on offer at the fair, and to raise the ante, an entire exhibition will also be on view for the first time this year. Courtesy of the Russian Union of Art Photographers and the State Russian Centre of Photography, a selection of eighty photos will be presented, illustrating Russian photography in the 1920s and 1930s, including several brilliant works by Rodchenko. Architecture, dance, constructivism and everyday life, elated, funny or simply aesthetic moments from the period that was decisive in the emergence of modern photography.

A bit closer
What are the big issues of the art life today? What are the arguments and quarrels that animate it? What successes and collaborations is it home to? These and more will be chewed over at the customary roundtable discussions of Artmagazin. Involving currently hot topics and key actors of the scene, the discussions are invariable entertaining, sometimes surprisingly heated. A great chance to get closer to those who deal in and with art.

The Budapest Art Fair welcomes visitors until 8 p.m., and on Saturday you have until 10 p.m. to meet people and art, to chat and shop, or just hang around. To make your time even more pleasant, the bistro will be brought up to you to the Apse of Műcsarnok.