CSETE | György Csete, Ildikó Csete, Pécs Group

Our ex­hi­bit­ion pre­sents the works of György Csete (1937–2016), one of the fo­und­ing fathers of Hun­ga­ri­an or­ga­nic ar­chi­tec­tu­re, and his wife, the tex­ti­le ar­tist Il­di­kó Csete (1940–2018), to­get­her with the works of the Pécs Youth Of­fi­ce from the 1970s, an ar­chi­tec­tu­ral as­so­ci­a­ti­on led by György Csete that ope­ra­ted bet­ween 1970 and 1976 and was later known as the Pécs Group. The mem­bers of the group were Gyöngy­vér Bla­zsek†, György Csete†, Lász­ló Deák, At­ti­la F. Ko­vács, Tibor Jan­ko­vics, Ist­ván Kis­te­leg­di†, Jó­zsef Nyáry†, and Péter Oltai. Csete's cons­tant struc­tu­ral en­gi­ne­e­ring part­ner was Jenő Du­lán­sz­ky†.

Their ar­chi­tec­tu­re ad­vo­ca­ted for the res­tora­ti­on of the now-lost unity of na­tu­re, ar­chi­tec­tu­re, and man, the ces­sa­ti­on of in­dust­ri­al en­vi­ron­men­tal deg­ra­da­ti­on and energy waste, and the use of solar energy (today known as re­ne­wab­le energy).

Csete de­ri­ved the Hun­ga­ri­an or­ga­nic ar­chi­tec­tu­re from the Hun­ga­ri­an Art No­u­veau ar­chi­tec­tu­re, which emer­ged at the turn of the 19th and 20th cent­uri­es. His pri­ma­ry goal was to de­sign ar­chi­tec­tu­re in his na­tive lan­gu­age, in cont­rast to the tech­ni­cis­tic de­so­la­ti­on of in­ter­na­ti­o­nal mo­der­nism, which was still pro­mi­nent in the 1970s.

The ex­hi­bit­ion opens with György Csete's world-fa­mous Spring House (1970), a po­e­tic ar­chi­tec­tu­ral vi­si­on of man’s union with na­tu­re. Also on disp­lay is the first phase of the Paks Nuc­lear Power Plant hous­ing est­a­te, the so-called Tulip Hous­es (de­sign­ed by György Csete, Lász­ló Deák, Ist­ván Kis­te­leg­di, and Tibor Jan­ko­vics), which made the name of the Pécs Group na­ti­o­nally known th­ro­ugh the press cont­ro­versy that erup­ted around them and led to the dis­so­lu­ti­on of the group.

A se­lec­ti­on of Csete's inc­re­dib­le se­ri­es of fre­e­hand dra­wings, often known as ‘think­ing dra­wings’ or ‘con­cep­tu­al di­ag­rams,’ that he made on A4 she­ets of paper th­ro­ug­ho­ut his life are on disp­lay in the ex­hi­bit­ion halls.

After her stu­di­es at the Hun­ga­ri­an Col­l­e­ge of App­li­ed Arts, Il­di­kó Csete wor­ked as a print de­sign­er at the Gold­ber­ger Tex­ti­le Fac­to­ry for over a de­ca­de and then con­ti­nu­ed her fre­elance de­sign work for the rest of her life. Her app­ro­ach was inf­lu­en­ced by the cre­a­tive spi­rit of the Gö­döl­lő Ar­tists' Co­lony and the Fin­nish app­li­ed arts of the 1970s. Th­ro­ugh Gö­döl­lő, she was also con­nec­ted to the folk art of Ka­lo­ta­szeg and, th­ro­ugh the Finns, to Euro­pe­an mo­der­nism. The Hun­ga­ri­an past and the rich, di­ver­se world of Hun­ga­ri­an folk and bo­ta­ni­cal or­na­men­ta­ti­on al­ways re­ma­ined the pri­ma­ry focus and for­mal motif of her work. Her oeuvre de­monst­ra­tes that there is no gap bet­ween the art of the past and the pre­sent be­ca­u­se both are alive.

This line of tho­ught is also the main mes­sage of our ex­hi­bit­ion, as many of today's eco­log­i­cal and ci­vi­li­za­ti­o­nal chal­len­ges re­vol­ve around these same is­sues.

cura­tor: Mik­lós Su­lyok

as­sis­tant cura­tor: De­ko­vics Dóra

cont­ri­bu­ting part­ner: Csete Fo­un­da­ti­on

More in­for­ma­ti­on on the work of György Csete and Il­di­kó Csete: cse­tek.hu

 

Vir­tu­al tour

CSETE | György Csete, Il­di­kó Csete, Pécs Group

CSETE | Csete György, Csete Il­di­kó, Pécs Cso­port
2024. May 17. - September 22.
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2024. May 11. - September 15.
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