QUEER BUDAPEST

RESISTING ERASURE: QUEER ART IN HUNGARY

Roma LGBTQ Community - Owing the game

STATEMENT

Queer Budapest is pleased to present an exhibition of works by emerging and established artists from the queer Hungarian diaspora during the 2021 edition of Art Cologne.

As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic the Hungarian queer community has found itself in increasingly uncertain territory. Already stigmatised and marginalised, over the course of the past year the Hungarian government has sought new ways in which to target the rights of LGBTQ+ people; From banning legal gender recognition and making marriage equality all but impossible to the most recent and far reaching legislation that equates homosexuality to pedophilia and bars LGBTQ+ education and representation in the media.

However, despite this challenging environment, queer artists are refusing to be silent in the wake of policies that seek to erase them from society and are continuing to produce work that has the power to inform and educate while inspiring us to take our fate into our own hands and imagine a world free from institutionalised hatred.

With works ranging from performance to painting to photography, Resisting Erasure: Queer Art in Hungary will present a multi-faceted view of contemporary queer life in Hungary by investigating themes such as Identity, Community and Feminism. Overall, this exhibition seeks to position art as an important method for the exploration and celebration of identity.

Selected by curators Zsuzsanna Zsuró and Thomas Roughan the exhibition includes works by: Ádám Csábi, Anna Ádám, Barnabás Lakatos-Gelléri, Borsos Lőrinc, Hollow Systems & works from the LGBTQ+ Roma Community.

Queer Budapest would like to thank Daniel Hug, the Art Cologne Team and our commercial supporters for making this exhibition possible.

‘Fears and Hopes’ by Barnabás Lakatos Gelléri

HISTORY

Queer Budapest is a platform that supports and promotes the work of LGBTQ+ creatives from the Hungarian diaspora.

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Queer Budapest was founded in 2020 by art researcher Zsuzsanna Zsuro (born in Budapest) and artist Thomas Roughan (born in London) after they met at Central Saint Martins in London and were both dissatisfied with lack of attention the Hungarian queer scene was receiving.

Queer Budapest’s first exhibition was held in November 2020 in Népsziget, an island in north Budapest, and was met with an overwhelmingly positive response, showing there was an interest in, and a need for, LGBTQ+ Hungarian art to be shown.

Following on from the initial exhibition came a radio and podcast series in early 2021 called Queer Budapest Talks which focused on facilitating in-depth discussions with a variety of queer creatives. During its run the series became the #2 rated podcast in the visual arts category in Hungary. It was also during this time that Queer Budapest started to gain attention from the arts media and was featured in both The Calvert Journal and Artnet News.

Currently, Queer Budapest is focusing on preparing to present a special exhibition during the 2021 edition of Art Cologne against a backdrop of rising tensions between the queer community and the government back home in Hungary.

Queer Budapest hopes this exhibition will continue to highlight the talent Hungarian LGBTQ+ artists have while contributing towards bringing international attention to the challenges they face.

Exhibited artists

Anna ÁDÁM – Performance

“School of Disobedience” is an experimental, anti-canonical and radical Performance Art School and Fight Club, only for women. Based on critical pedagogy, empowerment methods and guerilla tactics, the school helps participants achieve political consciousness through the regular practice of creating, fighting, protesting, resisting and revolting.

A box ring is installed in the lobby of the art fair, where a maximum of people are passing by. The public can either join the daily “Fight Club” classes, or experiment with this interactive installation on their own. Every afternoon there is a performance in the ring, each of them celebrating female combativity.

Ádám CSÁBI - Photography

Csábi’s photography is unique in a sense it encapsulates split seconds within queer safe spaces: parties. Through his intimate way of capturing the moment, visitors can get a glimpse into the fragile and at the same time wild and supportive scene of the intertwined techno and LGBTQ communities.

Barnabás GELLÉRI - Painting

An emerging artist based in Hungary, Barnabás Gelléri is engaged with the relationship between personal feelings & depiction. He directly translates the struggles and joys of everyday life into seemingly easily digestible compositions. However, what one finds is incredibly complex images. He doesn’t separate artistic and personal identity, his realm is the one dominated by his creatures most notably the snake and the ox.

Gelléri is currently studying at the Fine Art University of Budapest and previously undertook studies at the University of Applied Arts (MOME).

He has had numerous group and solo exhibitions, including ‘Coming of Age’ at Pince Project in 2018 and ‘Queer Budapest’ at Skurc Group in 2020.

Borsos Lőrinc (Janó BORSOS and Lilla LŐRINC) - Installation

Lilla Lőrinc, and János Borsos, have worked together since 2008 as Lőrinc Borsos. The name covers an entity with its own creative consciousness. His/her age is currently 12 years. His/her gender, sexual orientation and intellect are equally characterized by bipolarity. The basis of his/her existence is the coexistence of extremities, but his/her actual goal is the solution of duality. He/she despises hierarchy and the social divide and exclusion created in its wake. For them, art gets interesting beyond morals, when it still exists in an unfiltered state, right after the moment of the birth of an idea. At this point there is no political correctness of self-censorship yet.

Hollow Systems - Performance/ AI

For us, the idea of being “queer” is about subversion: we view it primarily as a tool.

Phoenix (2018) was our first work together. Our aim was to showcase the gay club culture through two major mythological figures; the Phoenix rising from the ashes, and the lonely Minotaur in its labyrinth, waiting for its next victim (or saviour). We like it when our work doesn’t have a straightforward meaning so that the viewer can become something more than an outside observer. But our aim is not to teach others how to be more open-minded. Rather, our works suggest that reality isn’t as solid as it seems and that the roles we assume could easily be different.

Roma LGBTQ Community - Photography

Owning the Game’ art project

Owning the Game is a photo exhibition that brought together Roma LGBTQ+ individuals as a community to create something that can represent us better. It recently debuted within the artistic framework of Budapest Pride in July 2021.