Where are we at home? What sorts of reasons can lead someone to leave her/his place of birth and to be an emigrant, i.e., an immigrant to somewhere else? How do we create new circumstances to provide security for us in a new place? This eternally topical, but constantly changing sphere of questions probes the Packing-Case exhibition. Two young artists who have studied abroad, Katarina ©eviæ and Tímea Oravecz, through their works, perambulate the questions of finding their place within foreign countries and foreign cultures. Their works here place at the focus a problem that appears to be only a basic, practical one of emigration/immigration: packing. That activity which at its foundation - depending upon the situation – means rendering the objects necessary for vacation-travelling-living ready and portable. Anyone who has ever packed can easily imagine how different it is from a brief journey, or even a simple move, to prepare for a new life, to pack up our life until now, bring it with us, and unpack it in a new country. How can we reduce-select, and what is it that we actually are bringing along with us? How do our possessions constitute the points of comparison of the various layers of our life, and how does it affect us, if instead of stable roots, and in the absence of our family and old friends, we are attached to only a suitcase or a cupboard's worth of possessions, at least upon our arrival inevitably?
Tímea Oravecz has been studying for years at the Accademia di Belle Art in Venice, but previously she also completed two years in Vienna, as well as spending six months in Granada on a scholarship. The practical side of her works approaches packing: playing Tetrix, we can order the artist's closet - her possessions appear nicely one after the other, and it is up to the ingenuity of the player whether or not they will fit into the closet (or "suitcase"). Also on display is the "trousseau" of today's woman, with the indispensable appurtenances of contemporary life, and her "survival-package" samples simultaneously assert and question what might be necessary for whom, when and for what...
Katarina ©eviæ arrived to Budapest from Novi Sad (SCG) five years ago, and she received her diploma from the Intermedia Department of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. She brings to life an unusual experience in her video work: her recurring dream of packing - and meanwhile, she feels that she will be late, she will miss the train - she is unable to finish what she has started. She discovered that many among those who have arrived from abroad have similar dreams. The visitor can survey the documentation of the artist's research exploring this phenomenon, and can also supplement it with her/his own experiences, thoughts and feelings.
Opening: Tuesday, 25 April 2006, at 6 p.m.
Opening speech by SZOMBATHY Bálint
Connecting programs:
Thursday, 27 April, from 6 p.m.: "Roots and Nostalgias" discussion will be held on personal experiences reflected in art and the problems this practice indicates in art history,
with the participation of the exhibiting artists,
Alexander Schikowski (artist), and Lívia Páldi (art historian)
Moderator: Zsófia Somogyi (curator of the exhibition)
Tuesday May 16, from 6 p.m.: "Other-side" discussion will be held on the social dimensions of migration with the participation of Irén Gödri (sociologist, associate of the Hungarian Central Statistic Office Demography Research Institute (DRI)), Attila Melegh (sociologist) and Attila Kováts (socio-politician, associate of the Institution for Minority Studies,
director of the Menedék - Hungarian Association for Migrants)
Moderator: Gergely Pualy (sociologist)
Both discussion will be held in Hungarian
The exhibition is on view until 27 May 2006, Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
The exhibition and the accompanying folder were realised with the kind support of the National Cultural Fund, the Municipal Government of Budapest Cultural Committee the Notebookzone (www.notebookzone.hu), the Zala Bútor Zrt. (www.zalabutor.hu) and the Trafo - House of Contemporary Arts