Exhibition display: December, 7. 2023 – January, 7. 2024., @ Budapest
Upon invitation to the exhibition’s press launch in addition to seven major cities, the Jerusalem Biennale can also be seen in Budapest at the Museum of Ethnography – District, XIV., 35. Dózsa György Road.
“This exhibition is a stands solidarity for Israel,” said György Szegő – artistic director of the Műcsarnok, adding that the Jerusalem Biennale is an important venue for fine arts life. Attila Turi – president of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, recalled that the 6th Jerusalem Biennale did not open on the planned November date this year due to the war that broke out as a result of the terrorist attack on October 7.
Because of the war, the 6th Jerusalem Biennale, announced under the title Iron Flock (Vasnyáj), had to be postponed, but presumably in 2024, sometime during Springtime will be take place. Budapest just as other big cities hosting in one of the thirty-five exhibitions. Under adventurous circumstances, in a very short time, the exhibition was completed, which included the landscapes of the failed Jerusalem Biennale, supplemented by the works of Hungarian artists.
Getting art objects out of Israel now, during the wartime, was absolutely less easy, as less planes took-off with a smaller capacity, and the documents of the shipment in a way got mixed up its way. Rami Ozeri – founding director of the biennale, flew to Budapest from Israel so that the art objects could be “exhibited”. The president of the MMA said that one part of the biennale’s projects will be presented in seven big cities: in addition to Budapest, New York, London, Rome, Turin, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires. This creates a kind of cultural network, he added.
At the exhibition will feature the works of 20 Israeli and 18 Hungarian artists with the participation of three Israeli and three Hungarian curators. The exhibition presents traditional and alternative, contemporary interpretations of landscape depiction, from plein-air painting to symbolic expressions. The works presented in thematic groups reflect each other and create a comprehensive, contemporary art landscape, Attila Turi – MMA president explained Q.: “The opportunity to show the power of art in this way, despite the depressing events, strengthens the connection between the culturally diverse Jerusalem and the city’s supportive community around the world.”
“The request to implement the exhibition came in a terrible situation, it was clear that we had to make this gesture,” said Lajos Kemecsi – director general of the Museum of Ethnography and added Q.: The institution is no stranger to hosting such an exhibition, a contemporary exhibition can still be seen in the museum. The short deadline was a challenge, but it proved the preparedness and willingness to cooperate. László Koppány Csáji – director of the MMA’s Art Theory and Methodological Research Institute, recalled that at the beginning of November, when the invitation arrived, it seemed almost impossible to create an international exhibition of this weight. With the exhibition, we express our solidarity and connect Israeli art with Hungarian art, said the director. He pointed out that the works of art displayed in the 800 square meter space of the Ethnographic Museum reflect to each other.
Curator Vera Pilpoul from Italy, who organized the exhibition “Behind the Mask” in the small town of Casale Monferrato – Italy, signed in online at the press conference. She said: the theme of the accepted exhibition was the Book of Esther, and Israeli and Italian artists presented themselves. The large-scale works had to be reproduced on site, alongside the contemporary works, the ancient Scroll of Esther was also visible, added the curator.
Tibor Munkácsy Award-winning painter Iski Kocsis, one of the curators and director of the Budapest exhibition, spoke about how the Israeli and Hungarian works can be seen in 5 thematic groups in Budapest, reflecting on the landscape, the land, the homeland. The exhibited works include oil paintings, large-scale drawings and photography. The Hungarian artists included young people and several Kossuth Prize winners, he said. Among other things, the thematic groups are built around the dystopian landscape, landscape as environment and home, the relationship between landscape and man, and landscape and ecological thinking. The curator also said that the title of the original project, which was not realized in Jerusalem, was Landscape, Landscape, Landscape.
In addition to Tibor Iski Kocsis, the curators of the exhibition were Nehemja Boáz, Ofer Kahana, Victor Rjabkin and Avi Róth.
Riport and snaps by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 