in the Ernst Museum!
Participating artists:
József Bartha, Csaba Csiki, Roland Farkas, Zsolt Fekete, József Juhász R., Attila Kispál, Ivette Martiny, Szilárd Miklós, Dénes Miklósi, Ilona Németh, Sándor Sebesi, Ede Sinkovics, Péter Szabó, Bálint Szombathy, Emőke Varga, Gusztáv Ütő We all know the story of Uncle Pista, who was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, later became a citizen of Czechoslovakia, and then of Hungary, only to spend a few decades in the Federal Republic of Czechoslovakia, before finding himself in Slovakia—and never leaving the village where he was born. These historical experiences of East-Central Europe have served, among other things, as the motivation for this exhibition, which is part of the Arts Festival of Hungarians Abroad, and enjoys the support of Égtájak Iroda.
And though there have been exhibitions devoted to art by Hungarians living in the neighbouring countries – Ernst Museum’s The Space We Share last year was one such –, GPS – Unknown Scene concentrates on areas that are unfamiliar for the contemporary Hungarian art scene. The display, which selects from the contemporary scene of three regions – Vajdaság (Serbia), Felvidék (Slovakia) and Transylvania (Romania) –, focuses on works in new artistic media. The display is the result of a search among the artistic productions of the scenes just mentioned, a search for contents that can be related. The curators themselves are actors of these scenes, active artists whose works will be on display here.
What in the global positioning system is considered a homogenous topographical surface, is in reality a variety of different scenes, dissimilar contexts. What the curators were interested in was the character of differences, beyond geopolitical givens. This is a display of valid artistic statements and positions, which reflect on those local, linguistic, social, cultural and identity-related contexts and situations which derive from the artists’ peculiar position, that of living “abroad.”