The art education and talent management are present in nearly every museum these days: they promote a more complete interpretation of certain exhibitions to all ages.
The Laboratory is a joint initiative of Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle and the Doctoral School of Educational Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University. In the project space we seek different methods as compared to the conventional routine. First of all we do not state, we ask. In the Laboratory surrounded by artifacts, profound and expressive manifestations of content, meaning and allusion, youngsters can realise their personal issues through the questions asked by artists and mentors.
The first project of the laboratory is about the school itself. For a long period of time, children learn about the world around them through the system of educational institutions. As teenagers, they have a firm opinion about the institutional system, the place that defines their limitations, tasks and behavioural patterns from day to day.
In the Laboratory, we work together in various groups. Although we have a returning team of high school students every Monday, we occasionally welcome kindergarteners and schoolchildren as well. By now, Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle has become a familiar place to the 'Monday group' since the members have participated in various workflow activities as volunteers or as the part of their high school community service. They have even taken part in the installation of the project space. In the Laboratory, the students meet known artists who were students yesterday, some of whom are teachers today and artists who refer to their schooldays and the present in their recent works. Over time, the students themselves make suggestions to involve new artists and artworks. The Laboratory is not a bound exhibition, it is a space continuously altering since February according to the questions and conversations and it will only be 'complete' when it closes its doors in the middle of May.
Who cares about what the students are surrounded by? Does anyone care about what they write on, how they sit or what's in their minds above those school desks? Who cares about what they carry or what things are on their backs and what stories they bear? Who cares about what kind of adults teach them about the world through the subjects in the school timetables? Who cares if they are not interested? Does anyone care what they connect and how or if they actually connect anything at all? Who cares if they ask questions or whether we ask them the right questions? Who cares what they think about themselves and others? Who cares about what criticism and rumour is? Who cares if they learn to reason or realise the weight of words or the consequences? Who cares about their idea of career and family? Who cares about what gets in from the outside world or filters through amongst the school benches? Who cares about what they keep on their mobiles or how they change and reinterpret in the messenger era or in the maze of chat rooms?
The Laboratory is about openness. It is an experiment to make youngsters hear our questions and us appreciate their answers. An attempt for all this to take place in an artistic environment where answers find shapes and shapes form answers.
Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle#Box, 3 March - 10 June 2018
Exhibiting artists at the time of opening: Kiállítóművészek a megnyitáskor: Gábor Födő, Fruzsina Kun, Mariann Máray, Sára Richter, György Szász, Loránd Szécsényi-Nagy
Heads of laboratory: Ildikó Bán, Katalin Szeivolt