Hungary
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Photography
- 3 Early cinema
- 4 Interwar avant-garde
- 5 Experimental film, avant-garde film
- 6 Performance art
- 7 Geometric abstraction, Neo-constructivism, Op art, Kinetic art
- 8 Interactive environments and installations
- 9 Computer and computer-aided art
- 10 Video art
- 11 Electroacoustic and experimental music, sound art
- 12 New media art, Media culture
- 13 Art theory, Art history, Media theory
- 14 Resources
Introduction[edit]
Sourced from Nina Czegledy, "Media Art: The Hungarian Model", CIAC 12, c2000.
In the twenties and thirties, Laszlo Moholy Nagy and several other Hungarians affiliated with the Bauhaus contributed greatly with cutting edge innovations to the art/technology discourse. The hiatus of the war years were followed in the fifties by a rediscovery of the "Bauhaus" concepts. On the surface, the themes between the sixties and the thirties seem distant from each other, however, through the work of certain individuals (beneath the turbulent public events) a continuum is observable. For example, Miklos Erdely, a leading avant garde multidisciplinary artist - and by his own admission an "aesthetic catalyst"- whose work extended to experimental films and videos, revived particular trends initiated by Lajos Kassak a seminal figure of the thirties.
In the seventies, the slowly slackening political structure and the expanding borders contributed to an opening towards new artistic expressions. Several artist became interested beyond photography in new technologies, primarily in film. The Balázs Béla Studio (BBS) for film has been established as early as 1961. While this experimental Studio was supposed to serve the purpose of a well supervised playground for young aspiring film directors, BBS became more and more open for those who have not been involved officially in film production, such as Gábor Bódy who graduated first from philosophy and later became an internationally known film and video maker. Body, producing his first video in 1976 was the first person in Hungary to work in this medium in an artistic context. Infermental, Body's annually edited international video series was widely hailed as "the art magazine" of the eighties. Collecting and collating the work of people working in remote global locations, uniquely bridged the information gap till the new communication forms appeared.
Art video production started in the early eighties in the BBS Studio. At this time here has been no foreshadowing of the communication revolution or networking practices. "What the web means today - said Peternak - seemed like a futuristic sci-fi story".
Towards the end of the eighties the wind of political change was clearly felt, bringing some academic reforms. At the Academy of Fine Art changes came about by pressure from the students in the summer of 1990. As a result of the student's initiatives, the Academy invited 15 new teachers and simultaneously established two new faculties, one of them the Intermedia department survived and is flourishing to this day. Several fine arts students became involved and worked enthusiastically in Intermedia The first graduating class was very strong and the hyperactivity of those early years sustained the department over the last decade.
Photography[edit]
Early cinema[edit]
Interwar avant-garde[edit]
Artists and theorists[edit]
- Lajos Kassák (1887–1967) was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, and theoretician of the avant-garde.
- Dezső Korniss
- Hungarian constructivist artists and theorists in Germany: László Moholy-Nagy, László Peri, Ernő Kállai, Lajos Kassák, Alfréd Kemény.
- Bauhaus
- Instructors: Marcel Breuer, László Moholy-Nagy.
- Students: Zsuzsa Bánki (took the preparatory course in 1930, died in Auschwitz), Masa Baranyai (took the preparatory course in 1929), Otti Berger (followed the weaving workshop since 1932, later taught there and remained at the school until the end, then returned to her home town, Zagreb, from there she was taken to a concentration camp in Germany where she died), Etel Fodor (studied at Jaschik's private school; at Bauhaus studied photography under Peterhans 1928-30; visited the weaving workshop at the invitation of friends; became a hand weaver in Cape Town from 1963), Pál Forgó (Fröchlich), Georgina Geuberger (Transylanian Saxon-Hungarian), Ruth Hollós (followed the weaving workshop in Dessau), Hugó Johan (Oct 1921-autumn 1922, then returned to Hungary to open a glass painting workshop), Judith Kárász (studied photography under Peterhans, 1931-32; had to leave the school due to her communist opinions), Zsuzsanna Leppien, Ernő Lichtenthal, Zsuzsa Markor-Ney (took the preparatory course in 1931; studied textile design under Otti Berger; worked in Paris from 1933), Farkas Molnár (Oct 1921-1925), Miklós Müller, Henrik Neugeboren (sculptor, painter, musician), Gyula Pap (secondary school in Vienna, adherent of Itten, Bauhaus student 1920-23 where he came and left with Itten, taught at the Itten School in Berlin 1926-1933), Henrik Stefán (Szelle) (sculptor, Oct 1921-autumn 1922, then returned to Hungary, and in 1925 again moved to the Bauhaus sculpture studio in Dessau where he stayed until 1928), István Sugár (Schwarz) (studied at Jaschik's private school), Lajos Tarai (Čačinović), Margit Téry-Adler (secondary school in Vienna, adherent of Itten; Bauhaus student 1920-23 where she came and left with Itten; with her husband, art historian Bruno Adler she also worked with Itten and Schlemmer as editors of the journal Utopia, reflecting the spirit of Weimar; taught in Karlsbad 1923-1926; worked in film, photography, advertising design), Ida Thal (from Vajdaság), Tibor Weiner (expelled from Germany in 1931 due to his communist opinions, left for Soviet Union, as a member of Hannes Meyer's brigade, Andor Weininger (since Oct 1921), István Zádor.
- Associates: Alfréd Forbát (architect from Pécs, worked with Gropius), István Sebök (killed in Moscow), Sándor Bortnyik, Ernő Kállai (asthetician, edited Bauhaus journal).
Groups and initiatives[edit]
- Keresők (Seekers), *1909, formed after MIÉNK group breaks up after its second exhibition. Members: painters Lajos Tihanyi, Róbert Berény, Béla Czóbel, Dezső Czigány, Károly Kernstok, Ödön Márffy, Dezső Orbán, Bertalan Pór. Their first exhibition denotes the first appearance of a truly avant-garde movement in Hungary. Renamed Nyolcak (The Eight) in 1911.
- A Fiatalok (The Young), *1916
- János Mácza's theatre workshop, *1917, László Péri joins
- MA Group, first literary matinee in 1917
- Pécs Artists' Circle, Pécs, *1920, led by Farkas Molnár
- 1925, Three students of the Academy of Fine Arts (Dezső Korniss, György Kepes, Sándor Trauner) set up an informal group concerned with new art (later they become the New Progressives).
- Új Föld (New ground) group, *1926, mainly participants of “The Green Donkey Theatre”). Three performances in 1926, publications include Palasovszky’s Punalua, with cover and graphics by Sándor Bortnyik.
- 1929, Hungarian group of CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architeture Moderne) formed, headed by Farkas Molnár.
Exhibitions[edit]
- 1909, first Kereső exhibition
- 1911, second Kereső/Nyolcak exhibition, at the National Salon
- 1912, third (and final) exhibition of Kereső/Nyolcak.
- April-May 1913, International Post-Impressionist Exhibition held in Budapest, includes works by Nyolcak.
- 1913, Travelling exhibition of futurists and expressionists at National Salon, Budapest
- 1914, Róbert Berény, Bertalan Pór, Lajos Tihanyi and Vilmos Fémes Beck exhibit at the Galerie Brüko, Vienna.
- 1914, Budapest: exhibition of Paris-based Sándor Galimberti and his wife Valéria Dénes’s cubist works
- 1916, inaugural exhibition of A Fiatalok: Péter Dobrovics, Lajos Gulácsy, János Kmetty, József Nemes Lampérth, Béla Uitz.
- 1917, A Fiatalok's second exhibition: Géza Csorba, Rudolf Diener-Dénes, Péter Dobrovics, Andor Erős, János Kmetty, József Nemes Lampérth, Armand Schönberger.
- 1918, MA’s third exhibition: Sándor Bortnyik, Rudolf Diener-Dénes, Sándor Gergyel, Lajos Gulácsy, János Kmetty, János Máttis Teutsch, József Nemes Lampérth, Pál Pátzay, György Ruttkay, János Schadl, Ferenc Spangher, Béla Uitz.
- 1918, Lajos Tihanyi’s first solo exhibition at MA Gallery.
- 1918, László Moholy-Nagy exhibits at the National Salon
- 1921, Pécs: Exhibition of Pécs Artists’ Circle: Farkas Molnár, Andor Weininger, Henrik Stefán, Hugó Johann, et al.
- 1923, Budapest: In the Mentor bookshop, exhibition of “Modern Graphic Art”: Béla Kádár, J. Máttis Teutsch, Béla Uitz, S. Bortnyik, et al., probably the first display of avant-garde art after 1919
- 1928, Kassák’s exhibition of his Képarchitektúra works.
- 1930, Bortnyik’s one-man exhibition of paintings, photographs, photomontages at the Tamás gallery.
- 1930, First and only exhibition of New Progressives at Tamás gallery. Subsequently most of them leave Hungary: for Berlin, Paris, or The Netherlands.
- 'From Art to Life: Hungarians at the Bauhaus', 15 Aug–24 Oct 2010, Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs; 'Von Kunst zu Leben. Die Ungarn am Bauhaus', 1 Dec 2010–21 Feb 2011, Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin. [7]
- 'Manifesto: KassÁk! An Intermedia Approach', 08.06. – 25.09.2011, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
- 'Lajos Kassák. Ambassador of the Avantgarde – 1915-1927', 17.06. – 17.10.2011, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
- 'Nature and Technology: Moholy-Nagy Reassessed 1916-1923', 2008, The Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
- 'Art for the People: Peter Peri 1899-1967 - An exhibition of sculpture, prints and drawings', 2008, Sam Scorcer Gallery, Lincoln
Events[edit]
- March-August 1918: Commune, with hightened avant-garde activity: propaganda posters by Béla Uitz, Róbert Berény, Sándor Bortnyik, Bertalan Pór; revolutionary theatre by János Mácza, Ödön Palasovszky, Erzsi Újvári; radical art schools, performances). Activists issue manifesto welcoming the communist republic, and take leading role in reorganisation of cultural life. Attack by communist leader Béla Kun, labelling MA decadent and bourgeois. MA practically proscribed. Last Budapest issue 1 July. After defeat, protagonists go into exile to Austria and Germany
- 1921, Actor-playwright-poet Ödön Palasovszky revives modernist life, presenting experimental stage performances in workers’ centres in Budapest.
- 1928, four Cikk-Cakk (Zigzag) evenings of avant-garde theatrical performance: Ödön Palasovszky, Iván Hevesy, Aladár Tamás, et al. (Új Föld group).
- 1928, performances by Független Új Művészek (Independent New Artists) - Kassák, Jolán Simon, Tibor Déry, Gyula Illyés, et al. (Dokumentum group). 1929, avant-garde performances: pantomime The green donkey performed, along with plays by Tristan Tzara and Herwarth Walden.
- 1929, Police raids classes at Academy of Fine Arts and expels students of the New Progressive Group for “subversive” material (incl. socio-photomontages) found.
- 1931, Construction of a modernist estate of 22 cube-shaped family houses in Budapest, designed by Farkas Molnár, Pál Ligeti, József Fischer and others.
Venues[edit]
- Ma Gallery. Inaugural exhibition in 1917: János Mattis-Teutsch’s first exhibition (expressionist paintings, sculptures and linocuts).
Education[edit]
- Műhely (Workshop; or 'little Bauhaus'). Sándor Bortnyik, a Hungarian painter and graphic designer, lived in Weimar between 1922 and 1924 where he was in contact with the Bauhaus. After returning to Hungary in 1925 he founded and directed a private school of for advertising design in Budapest in 1928 with curriculum inspired by the Bauhaus principles. The tutors included Iván Hevesy (art history, film), Kálmán Kovács (stage design), Farkas Molnár (architecture), Pál Ligeti ('construction', cultural history), and himself (painting, graphic design, advertising design). The school was attended, among others, by Victor Vasarely; it closed down in 1938.
- Atelier Muveszeti Tervezo
- Muhelyiskola
Writings and lectures[edit]
- 1910, first important contributions to post-impressionist theory: lectures by Károly Kernstok "Art as exploration" (becomes artistic program for Keresők); György Lukács, "Az utak elváltak" [The ways have parted], Nyugat 1, 1910, p. 190-193.
- 1921, Sándor Barta’s dadaist-absurd play Igen (Yes) appears in MA, with Bortnyik’s linocut. Kassák’s first dadaist visual poem on a cover of MA. His book of dada poetry Új versek (New poems) with his own dada-constructivist woodcuts. MA features Kassák’s manifesto Képarchitektúra (picture architecture), and “mechano-dada” art of Moholy-Nagy.
- Új művészek könyve (Book of new artists) by Kassák and Moholy-Nagy, 1922, in Hungarian and German (Leipzig) editions.
- In 1922, Ödön Palasovszky publishes manifesto Új Stáció (New station), calling for a “collective” art for the masses.
- Ernő Kállai, "Konstruktivizmus" [Constructivism], Ma, Vienna, 1923. [8]
- Ernő Kállai, Alfréd Kemény, László Moholy-Nagy, László Péri, "Nyilatkozat" [Manifesto], Egység no. 4, 1923. [9]
- Vienna-Leipzig: Béla Balázs has his Der sichtbare Mensch, oder, Die Kultur des Films (X.981/3876) published, one of the first systematic works on the aesthetics of film, 1924.
- Tér és Forma (Space and form) published by Virgil Birbauer in Budapest, 1928, devoted to modern architecture.
- Bortnyik’s lecture Art of the machine age at Mentor bookshop, 1929.
- more: [10], [11], [12], [13], [14]
Journals[edit]
- A Tett (The Deed), 1915, edited by Kassak. In 1916, Kassák produces international issue of A Tett, and includes works by authors from enemy countries. Journal banned for its anti-war stand. Soon he starts his new journal Ma, with cover art by Czech Vincenc Beneš and Kassák’s article "The poster and new painting" [15].
- MA, 1916-25, Budapest (since 1920 in Vienna), editor Lajos Kassák. 1922's double issue includes works by international constructivists and dadaists.
- Jelenkor (The Present Age), 1917-, edited by critic Iván Hevesy, first issue with László Moholy-Nagy’s contribution.
- Akasztott Ember: Az egyetemes szocialista kultura orgánuma (Hanged Man), 1922-1923, Vienna, ed. Sándor Barta, left-wing dada journal, Barta satirises Kassák and MA for glorifying machines, [16].
- Egység (Unity), 1923-24?, Vienna/Berlin. Ed. Béla Uitz and Aladár Komját. Politically left to MA.
- Ék (Wedge), 1923-?, Vienna, cont. of Akasztott Ember, by Béla Uitz and Sándor Barta.
- 365, 1925, Budapest, an attempt to establish a Budapest edition of MA
- Dokumentum, 1926-1927, Budapest, ed. Kassák. Journal presents constructivist ideology, and is unique in giving voice to emerging Hungarian surrealists in literature, like Andor Németh, Tibor Déry or Gyula Illyés.
- Új Föld, 1927, edited by Aladár Tamás
- 100%, legally published cultural journal of illegal communist party, 1927-1930, edited by Aladár Tamás, first issue with constructivist cover by Farkas Molnár. Eventually banned.
- Munka (Work), 1928-1939, ed. Kassák. Concentrates more on society and politics than the arts. Eventually banned for political reasons. In 1929, New Progressives break with Kassák and Munka, but he continues to publish their works.
Collections[edit]
Misc[edit]
Literature[edit]
- Catalogues
- WechselWirkungen. Ungarische Avantgarde in der Weimarer Republik, ed. Hubertus Gassner, Marburg: Jonas, 1986, 589 pp. Catalog of an exhibition held at the Neue Galerie, Kassel, Nov. 9, 1986-Jan. 1, 1987, and at the Museum Bochum, Jan. 10-Feb. 15, 1987. (German)
- The Hungarian Avant-Garde 1914-1933, ed. John Kish, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, 1987. (English)
- Steven A. Mansbach, Standing in the Tempest: Painters of the Hungarian Avant-Garde, 1908-1930, Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and Cambridge University Press, 1991, 240 pp. (English)
- Von Kunst zu Leben. Die Ungarn am Bauhaus, ed. Éva Bajkay, Pécs: Janus Pannonius Múzeum & Hungarofest, 2010, 413 pp. [19] (German)
- Books, journal issues
- Hungarian Studies Review 15(1): "The Early Twentieth Century Hungarian Avantgarde", ed. Oliver A.I. Botár, Spring 1988. (English)
- Articles
- Edith Horváth, "Ungarn und das Bauhaus", Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift 23:5/6, Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen, 1976. (German)
- Gyula Pap, "Bauhauserziehung in Ungarn: 'Nagy Balogh' - Volkskollegium und Malerschule in Nagymaros 1948-1949", Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift 26:4/5, Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen, 1979. (German)
- Leo Kohut, "Bauhaus. Ungarn-Tschechoslowakei. Zur Bauhaus-Rezeption in Ost-europa", in Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum. Sammlungs-Katalog, (Auswahl), Architektur, Design, Malerei, Graphik, Kunstpädagogik, Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1981, pp 283-287. (German)
- Miklos von Bartha, "Carl Laszlo. Der Sturm. Die ungarischen Kunstler am Sturm, Berlin, 1931-32", Basel Galerie von Bartha, 1983.
- E.H. Sipos, "Hungarian Relations with Bauhaus and their Influence in Hungary", 1985.
- Hubertus Gassner, "'Ersehnte Einheit' oder 'erpresste Versohnung': Zur Kontinuitat und Diskontinuitat ungarischer Konstruktivismus-Konzeption" in WechselWirkungen. Ungarische Avantgarde in der Weimarer Republik, ed. Gassner, 1986, pp 183-220. (German)
- Esther Levinger, "Lajos Kassak, MA and the New Artist: 1916-1925", The Structurist 25/26, 1986, pp 78-87. (English)
- Esther Levinger, "The Theory of Hungarian Constructivism", The Art Bulletin 69:3 (Sep 1987), pp. 455-466. [20] (English)
- Eva Bajkay-Rosch, "Gruppenbildung in Weimar: Beiträge der unbekannten ungarischen Bauhäusler", Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift / A 33:4/6, Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen, 1987. (German)
- Oliver A.I. Botar, "Constructivism, International Constructivism, and the Hungarian Emigration", in The Hungarian Avant-Garde 1914-1933, William Benton Museum of Art, 1987, pp 90-98. (English)
- Esther Levinger, "Hungarian Constructivist Typography and Posters", in The Hungarian Avant-Garde 1914-1933, William Benton Museum of Art, 1987, pp 112-122. (English)
- S. A. Mansbach, "Confrontation and Accommodation in the Hungarian Avant-Garde", Art Journal 49:1 (Spring 1990), pp 9-20. [21] (English)
- Oliver A.I. Botar, "From the Avant-Garde to 'Proletarian Art'. The Émigré Hungarian Journals Egység and Akasztott Ember, 1922-23", Art Journal 52(1): "Political Journals and Art, 1910-40", College Art Association, Spring 1993, pp 34-45; exp.version as "From Avant-Garde to 'Proletkult' in Hungarian Émigré Politico-Cultural Journals, 1922-1924", in Art and Journals on the Political Front 1910-1940, ed. Virginia Hagelstein Marquardt, University Press of Florida, 1997, pp 100-141. (English)
- Eva Forgacs, "Between Cultures: Hungarian Concepts of Constructivism", in Central European Avant-Gardes: Exchange and Transformation, 1910-1930, ed. Timothy O. Benson, MIT Press/Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2002, pp 146-164. (English)
- András Ferkai, "Hungary: Marcel Breuer, Farkas Molnár, Pál Forgó, Ernó Lichtenthal, Laszló Szabó, Tibor Weiner, Alfréd Forbát, István Sebök, Mühely, Atelier Müvészerti Tervezö, Mühelyiskola / András Ferkai", Centropa 3 (2003) 1, pp 13-26. (English)
- Peter Weibel, "Viennese Kineticism and Hungarian Constructivism", in Beyond Art: A Third Culture, Springer, 2005, pp 46-56. (English)
- Peter Weibel, "On the Origins of Hungarian Constructivism in Vienna: MA 1920-25. The Only Instance of Modernism Between the Wars", in Beyond Art: A Third Culture, Springer, 2005, pp 57-71. (English)
- Peter Konok, "Lajos Kassák and the Hungarian Left: Radical Milieu (1926–1934)", in Regimes and Transformations. Hungary in the Twentieth Century, eds. István Feitl and Balázs Sipos, Budapest: Napvilág, 2005, pp 177-194. [22] (English)
- Éva Forgács, "'You Feed Us So that We Can Fight Against You'. Concepts of the Art and State in the Hungarian Avant-Garde", Arcadia 41:2 (2006), pp 260-274. (English)
- Krisztina Passuth, "Hungarians at the Bauhaus", Hungarian Quarterly 200 (Winter 2010). (English)
- Éva Forgács, Tyrus Miller, "The Avant-Garde in Budapest and in Exile in Vienna: A Tett (1915-6), Ma (Budapest 1916-9; Vienna 1920-6), Egység (1922-4), Akasztott Ember (1922), 2x2 (1922), Ék (1923-4), Is (1924), 365 (1925), Dokumentum (1926-7), and Munka (1928-39)", in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, Vol. 3: Europe, 1880-1940, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp 1128-1156. [23] (English)
Technology and communication[edit]
Experimental film, avant-garde film[edit]
- György Gerö, Béla, unrealised. An experimental film scenario, published in 1924 in the dadaist review IS. The original scene-by-scene film script and complete scenario of the film consist of 4 pages currently housed in the Budapest City Archives. Gerö never completed the film.
- Jozsef Gujdar contemplates death in his chilling Studium (Study, 1970) - a hugely magnified candle burning out accompanied by Penderecki's "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima."
- Pál Fejős, Tavaszi zápor [Spring Shower], 62 min, 35 mm, 1932.
- László Kandó, A magyar falu [The Hungarian Village], 15 min, 35 mm, 1935.
- Béla Gaál, Címzett ismeretlen [Address Unknown], 81 min, 35 mm, 1935.
- Dezső Magyar (BBS), Punitive Expedition (Büntetőexpedíció, 1970, 32')
- Elemér Ragályi (BBS), New Year's Eve (Szilveszter, 1974, 15')
- Gábor Bódy (BBS). His first full-length feature, American Torso (Amerikai anzix, 1975) united the elements of documentary and experimental film. The film was about the fate of Hungarian freedom fighters in the 1848 revolution who went to America and fought in the American Civil War. Using a special method of "light-editing" Bódy created an archaic style with the help of special effects, as if the film was indeed a period documentary from America. Four Bagatelles (Négy Bagatelle, 1975, 27'). Narcissus and Psyche (Psyché, 1980), over 5 hours long, experimental techniques, even though aimed for a larger audience.
- Miklós Erdély (BBS) uses the music of Schumann in the final part of his Alommasolatok (Dream Reconstructions, 1977), "Herakleitosz toredek" (Herakleit's Fragment). Examining the relationship between life, dreams and cinema, Alommasolatok bends our perception like few films can. The central character describes his dreams and his experience of electroshock therapy to a young interviewer who, only being projected onto a cinema screen, regrets she can not meet him in real life. Eventually their desire to meet is fulfilled as she bursts through the screen. Erdely's seductive visual style amuses while his faithful capturing of the texture of dreams keeps you involved in the film. Pihenes (Relax, 1983), video, one-minute zen performance
- Tibor Hajas (BBS), Self Fashion Show (Öndivatbemutató, 1976, 14')
- Péter Halász (BBS)
- Zoltán Jeney (BBS)
- Dóra Maurer (BBS)
- Péter Tímár (BBS) [24]
- László Vidovszky (BBS), Aldrin (1976). Film describes a meeting with the American space hero at a party.
- András Szirtes (BBS), Dawn (Hajnal, 1979, 20'). Japan meniszkusz (Japanese Meniscus, 1996) oneiric, metaphysical poem. filmed to a Japanese soundtrack. A kisbaba reggelije (The Baby's Breakfast, 1996), based on reinterpreting the invention of cinema though a series of home film clips which one of the Lumiere brothers shows his daughter. stemming from a rather whimsical and pointless idea (albeit an original one) which is stretched out to forty minutes. Only the quotation of L'Arrivee d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat, using an intercity train, has any real inventiveness.
- Gyula Száva, Eset [Rating], 1980, 35mm film, b&w, 14 min. See Computer and computer-aided art.
- Putyi Horváth's Hannah und Tarzan (Hannah and Tarzan, 1983), overweight Hungarians ice-skating while wearing nothing other than the skates and a telephone.
- György Szomjas created his own kind of experimental narration in his early "easterns" (Talpuk alatt fütyül a szél - The Wind Whistles under Their Feet 1976, Rosszemberek - Wrong-Doers 1978). These stories of "betyars" (vagabond outlaws and anti-heroes) were a unique, ironic synthesis of documentaries and commercial films.
- Andras Baranyai in Kozos portre Jane Morrisszal (Jane Morris, 1984) enacts the feelings of the pre-Raphaelite muse to the music of Eric Satie.
- Lenke Szilagyi, Cim nelkul (Without Title, 1986), oneiric, metaphysical poem. filmed to solo cello music
- István Antal, A hattyu (The Swan, 1986) is a film about Saint-Saens without music.
- András Monory-Mész, Meteo, 1989. One year after Blade Runner (1988) this is the Hungarian cyberpunk classic (termed part of the 'new impressiveness' movement by film historians). A feature fiction film, a sci-fi (/cyberpunk) movie about three characters in a postapocalyptic world. The 'hacker' character is a meteorologist and he uses a computer to calculate the winning alogrithm for horse races. He does this is Turbo Pascal. :) This one is available from the Odeon, the commonplace video distribution company, maybe only for renting. Starring famous now-nationalist actor Eperjes Károly, the visual is all there, what is missing is the existential borderline problematic that is a key element of cyberpunk works, and what was exemplified by the human vs. machine dichotomy in BR which is deconstructed by the concept of the cyborg. Similarly to BR the location is a factory sector which is about to be blown up. [25]
- Sebestyen Kodolanyi, Anatomia (Anatomy, 1997), 13 minutes, Kodolanyi was once a photographer (until he got bored with it), and this is reflected in this essay on the qualities of light, first in street scenes and then in portraits. The work is infused with dynamism and demonstrates the importance of a good soundtrack - in this case by Suzanne Brokesch - in achieving a total effect. The film has a strict purity to it, with only the slightly weaker second half depriving it of absolute perfection.
- István Antal, Varnai vagottkak (Varnai Clips, 1998), based on filming situations acted out from cartoons by the late blackly humorous animator, Varnai. Antal lacks the careful balance of humour and despair that the original animations had and strips the ideas of much of their value.
- Gyula Nemes The Dike of Transience (2004) Lost World (2008)
- Péter Forgács
- Péter Lichter filmmaker. Short films: Rimbaud (2014) Look Inside The Ghost Mashine (2013) Cassette (2011) Light Sleep (2009) Dream re-creation 1.1 (2008) 77 years of déja vu (2006) Emlékszendvicsek (2005) Slow Midnight Show (2004)
- Gergő Somogyvári Carta Azulejo (2008)
- Events
- BBS 50 exhibition: Other Voices, Other Rooms – Attempt(s) at Reconstruction, exhibition and film screenings at Műcsarnok kunsthalle, Dec 2009-Feb 2010. [26]
- Literature
- György Gerő, "Film", Dokumentum, Jan 1927; repr., Filmvilág, Sep 1987, pp 8-10. (Hungarian)
- Film / Művészet: A magyar kísérleti film története. Budapest, 1983. (Hungarian)
- Miklós Peternák (ed.), F:I.L.M. A magyar avantgarde film története és dokumentumai. Budapest: Jelenkor, 1991. (Hungarian)
- Gábor Gelencsér (ed.), Mozgóképkultúra és médiaismeret. Szöveggyűjtemény, Budapest, Korona, 1998. (Hungarian)
- Károly Kókai, "The Evidence of the Avant-garde Film", Hungarian Studies 31:1, 2017, pp 39-46. [27] (English)
- Katalin Székely, "The Influx of Images: Photo, Experimental Film and Video Art in the Hungarian Neo-avant-garde", in Art in Hungary 1956–1980: Doublespeak and Beyond, eds. Edit Sasvári, Hedvig Turai, Sándor Hornyik,London: Thames & Hudson, 2018. (English)
- Resources
http://artincinema.com/category/hungarian-experimental/
http://kontracinema.com/category/magyar-avantgard/
Performance art[edit]
Gábor Altorjay [28], György Galántai [29], Tibor Hajas [30], Tamás St. Auby [31], Endre Tót [32], Gábor Tóth [33]
- Events
- The Lunch (in memoriam Batu Khan) (1966), at the cellar of István Szenes, Budapest. The first happening in Hungary. Participants and organizers: Gábor Altorjay, Tamás Szentjóby (with the assistance of Enikő Balla, Miklós Erdély, Miklós Jankovics, István Varannai). [34]
- Fluxus concerts in Budapest in 1969 [35]
Geometric abstraction, Neo-constructivism, Op art, Kinetic art[edit]
- Artists
- Sándor Szandai, 1903-1978, Budapest
- Victor Vasarely, 1906-1997, Budapest/Paris
- Nicolas Schöffer, 1912-1992, Hungary/Paris
- János Fajó, 1937-2018, Budapest
- Tamás Hencze, 1938-2018, Budapest
- István Nádler, 1938, Budapest
- Imre Bak, 1939, Budapest
- Gyula Pauer, 1941-2012, Budapest
- András Mengyán, 1945, Budapest
- Literature
- Né/ma? Tanulmányok a magyar neoavantgárd köréből, eds. Pál Deréky and András Müllner, Budapest: Ráció, 2004. (Hungarian)
- Dóra Hegyi, Zsuzsa László, "A kiállítások láthatatlan története – párhuzamos kronológiák", Korunk, Sep 2009. (Hungarian)
Interactive environments and installations[edit]
- Attila Kováts
- András Mengyán. During the course of the 1980’s he produced computer works and environments in which light, sound, film, mirrors, and string (as lines or contours) brought about the given spaces, and the phase images of the spatial movements. The series entitled Formák didaktikája /The Didactics of form/ provides more space for the fantasy, therefore producing a larger number of possible visual and logical interpretations. His work entitled Vizuális programok /Visual programs/ provided broadened dimensional, spatial movement, for instance a logical, yet closely poetic rhythm based on opposites (e.g.: black and white, red and green, light and shadow, photograph and moving images, and the movement of the viewer and the observed object) (Programozható environment I. /Programmable Environments I./). In this latter large-scale composition the viewer becomes part of the space-composition, through stepping into the given space. Within the dark space six-meter tall slim pyramids, composed of carton or mirror, stand upright, which gives the given space a crystal-like structure, onto which the moving images prepared of the skyscrapers of New York are projected. Programmable Environment I-III (or as the artist terms it, the "space movie") was the first Hungarian installation in which the computer had an important part; was exhibited at Mucsarnok in 1985; its color/light, film, and sound effects filled three rooms; the work created the environment that can be experienced; it was a mobile situation; formally continued in 1995 at the Mucsarnok under the title Trans-Effects. Norway.
- Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák and Márton Fernezelyi, Cryptogram (1996) is an encryption system using Virtual Reality Modeling Language, the medium of networked virtual reality at the dawn of this technology. [36]
- Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák and Márton Fernezelyi, DeMedusator (1997-98) is a shared virtual world developed by its visitors. The project was an early attempt to create a multi-user virtual world, in which any visitor - potential participant - can be "creative": the system enables the users to add their - either pre-designed or draft - creatures to the world, let it be a complete virtual world or simply a sound/movie or picture file. For the observer all the contents are appearing in form of a “virtual sculpture”, which is created by the Cryptogram system, containing the encrypted version of the first few hundred bytes of the file. To explore the “original” content the visitor has to touch the Cryptogram: the original content is immediately decoded and shown instead of the encrypted sculpture. DeMedusator is based on the software environment of the late 90s(JAVA runtime and Cosmoplayer VRML plugin), the project was discontinued in 1998. [37]
- Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák, Promenade (1998-2002) is a Virtual Reality installation. Besides its original version first exhibited in 1999, a new, stereoscopic version has been developed in 2002. [38]
- more: http://www.c3.hu/~szmz/projects.htm
Computer and computer-aided art[edit]
- Artists
- emigrées: John Halas, Peter Foldes, Charles Csuri (USA), Leslie Mezei (Canada), Bela Julesz
- Gábor Bódy
- Tamás Waliczky
- Works
- Gábor Bódy: Psychocosms (Pszichokozmoszok), 1976, computer film, BBS, b&w, 35 mm, 13’03”. Bódy’s first encounter with a computer happened while he was working on the Film School series shot in 1976 for the School TV, and he recorded Psychocosms, the first Hungarian computer animation in the same year, at the experimental studio of BBS.The film was made with the help of a TPA 1001/i integrated circuit based punched card computer nicknamed “Vica” at the Nuclear Physics Department of Eötvös Loránd University, which was one of the first devices in Hungary equipped with a raster display. It was not yet possible to render the image in real time, so an interface had to be developed to connect the movie camera with the computer. The program it required was developed by astrophysicist Sándor Szalay. The application written by him allowed the cameraman a delayed frame by frame recording of the images consecutively calculated by the computer, using a 35 mm Arriflex camera directed at the screen. Also referred to as “proxemic schemes”, Bódy’s film was made not only by computer, but it was in fact the documentation of a computer-based experiment, as it demonstrated an existing algorithm called Brownian motion, which de-scribes thermodynamic and quantum-mechanical movements. This cellular automaton model was used by John Conway’s so-called Game of Life, in which players take new shapes based on the numeric ratio of neighbouring cells. Bódy adapted Conway’s idea. The goal of the film experiment was the visual representation of absolute spontaneity. The director considered that he could create the dramaturgy of accidental events by the movement of elements in the system that were endowed by elementary features alluding to different moods (like agressivity or negligence). (Orosz 2016: 25) [39]
- Ágnes Háy, Várakozás [Waiting], 1980. With the help of a computer, Ágnes Háy used the system of coordinates described in her study "Graphic Illustration of Time in Film" ("A filmidő grafikus ábrázolása", 1984). Completed at the Pannónia Film Studio of Budapest. György Háy wrote a computer program for the editing of the film. The software calculated how it was possible to play back an event accelerating from 1/20 speed to 20x speed in the time frame it took for it to take place. Although a computer was indispensable for the realization of the idea in the film (using a Quattro Pro spreadsheet program), the footage was shot by traditional, almost ancient means. The film recording the event was projected using a camera frame by frame from the animation desk to a canvas, and while Ágnes Háy was reading the numbers generated by the computer, the cameraman was advancing the projector and the camera simultaneously, frame by frame. The music of the film was a recomposed version of a Bach movement by László Vidovszky, by typing the calculations into a programmable Texas Instruments miniature computer and transcoding the results into traditional music sheets. (Orosz 2016: 29) [40] [41]
- István Bartók, Dimenziók [Dimensions], 1981, computer animation recorded on 35mm b&w film. The first computer animation fully made in Hungary. Shot simultaneously with Waiting at the Pannonia Film Studio. The concept was Bartók’s, but the idea that it would be possible to realize the script using a computer came from László Nádasi, head of the puppet studio at the time. Made in 1981, the film was ground-breaking in Hungary in terms of using a computer for the design of each and every element, from the first frame to the last, including the title sequence. The simple little film illustrating the adventures of a dot breaking loose from the axis of a coordinate system and leaping from zero dimension to the third dimension is witty and enjoyable even today, despite being rudimentary. The program animating the vector graphic lines was written by Miklós Báthor working at MTA SZTAKI (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Computer and Automation Research Institute) with the contribution of András Siegler in the Assembly language, and the software was running on a Videoton R10 computer. The display used was a Tektronix oscilloscope, of which the frame by frame recording was made. The light pen used as an input device was designed by Miklós Báthor, consisting of a miniature light bulb at the end of an emptied ball-point pen. A pen display was fixed on one end of a mount, with a Vidicon television camera pointed at the display and the light dot. Accordingly, by processing the image, the drawing movements (key frames were drawn by Tamás Szabó Sipos) could be traced in real time, and Báthor wrote a separate program to facilitate inbetweening. (Orosz 2016: 29, 31)
- Gyula Száva, Eset [Rating], 1982, 35mm film, b&w, 14 min, silent. The film’s synopsis had been ready in 1974, but for the lack of suitable technology (computer and software), it was impossible to realize such transformation of lines and polygons before.31It took a few more years until Ferenc Deák, engineer at the Nuclear Physics Department of Eötvös Loránd University wrote the program for the infinite generator that would create the twenty thousand frames of the film. Recorded and re-recorded frame by frame from a display in a darkened room, the film showed the abstract process of patterns moving along different courses(cyclically or linearly) and continuously changing their size from being reduced to dots to growing into circles. The film seemed to demonstrate the life cycle of an organism in the form of a “micro-event” condensed into a few minutes. Produced by BBS, MTV experimental studio, KISZ Kísérleti stúdió. Staff: Olivér Hollós, Sándor Szalay, András Szirtes; computer program: Ferenc Deák; computer: TPA 1001/1, Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Nuclear Physics. Shown at 1983 art/film festival. ... The piece’s process time plane was completely reorganized by the soundtrack, composed for the longer, 54 minute video version of the original silent film, which was synced to the images by László Vidovszky using an analogue synthesizer in an electronic music studio, by transforming the images into modulated sound. Entitled Video-paraphrase: “IFEM – InFinite Element Method”, this version of Száva’s film was made for the exhibition Entgrenzte Grenzen [Borderless Borders] at Künstlerhaus Graz in 1987. This was where Száva presented his installation Topologies, which consisted of an alphanumeric monochrome and a colour monitor connected with IBM AT computers. The latter displayed images of continuously changing and traversing 9-dimensional Boolean hypercubes, quaternions, octonions and Klein-bottles, written in C programming language by János Kepes and Miklós Báthor. An aquarium placed between the two graphic displays symbolically alluded to the occasionally inevitable “overflow” of data, with an eternal candle flame burning on the surface of the water (originally milk) it contained. Master: U-MATIC High Band, Secam, b&w, 54 min. Produced by BBS, K/3 Group, MTV KISZ Kísérleti stúdió. Staff: István Horváth, István Hajdú, Zoltán Bálint-Szabó; electronic music and voice: László Vidovszky. (Orosz 2016: 25, 27) [42]
- Around 1987, Tamás Waliczky used an ATARI 520 ST to make his first-ever animations, which he called Computer Mobiles. The programmers at the Caesar Software Studio helped him to design the software; since then, most of his excercises in animation have been based on programs written wholly or partly for the specific work concerned. In his first works, Waliczky explored the possibility offered by the ATARI computer of storing and endlessly repeating a one to four seconds long animated sequence. [43]
- In 1988, after completing the "Mobiles" series, Waliczky made a five minute computer animation which he called PICTURES. Based on a set of digitally manipulated snapshots from a family photo album, the work is like a slide show in virtual form: details from the first photograph are enlarged by an imaginary camera, and each enlargement generates a new "picture". Thus the viewer sees an ever-receding sequence of moments from the story of a person's life. The first and last image in the animation are identical; the circle is complete and the story comes to an end. Won the first Prize of P.L.E.I.A.S. Festival, Paris; and Honorary Mention in Animation Category of Prix Ars Electronica, Linz. [44]
- Tamás Waliczky, Is there any room for me here? (1988). This black-and-white video is based around the image of a sparsely furnished apartment at nighttime, using light and shade effects - of a subtlety and delicacy that recalls the brushstrokes in a Chinese ink drawing - to pick out the objects from the dark background. The austere beauty of the forms and movements is accentuated by the strains of a Bach cello cuite. Won the second Prize of P.L.E.I.A.S. Festival, Paris. [45]
- Tamás Waliczky wrote The Manifesto of Computer Art in 1989 [46]
- Tamás Waliczky, Machines 1989. Computer graphic series, originally A3 prints. "Gramophone" (from the series) won first Prize (Golden Nica) in Computer Graphic Category of Prix Ars Electronica, Linz. [47]
- Tamás Waliczky and Tibor Szemző, Conversation 1990. Interactive live performance, about 30 minutes long. Won Honorary Mention in Interactive Category of Prix Ars Electronica, Linz. In 1991 performed in Étampes. In 1992 live performance at SZKÉNÉ Theatre, Budapest. [48]
- Tamás Waliczky, Memory of Moholy-Nagy, 1990, computer animation. An animated journey through the abstract colors, compositions, and constructions of the Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy. In 1991 selected for the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre and won the World Graph Prize of Locarno Videoart Festival and the Festival Prize of Berlin International Animation Festival. [49]
- For the first time, Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák used a computer in the installation exhibited on the show Ostmodern (Munich, 1991): he created a fractal-like image assembled of rectangular polaroids. He "recaptured" dots of a random graph with polaroid images picturing the wall on which the previously taken were mounted on: this way he created a "double closed circuit". All the polaroids show the previously taken ones, recalling the iterations of random-number generation of a Sinclair ZX 80 game-computer. In the piece Oscillation he used the effect of a "bug" in the operating system of a Commodore plus4 game-computer. The program used a similar "closed-circuit" algorithm like the "Ostmodern"-project: the "hidden rememberance" of the computer's graphic memory drives the drawing program, while the content of the "hidden" graphic memory-segment is flashing periodically on the screen. The capabilities of the cheap computers are limited, the only way to show the graphics or animation produced with them is to videotape them, so Szegedy-Maszák wrote short programs and scripts that he recorded on video and showed short loops on TV sets. The material of the videotape acts a significant rule in the installations: the colors of the spectacle and the looped sequences are pushing these pieces at the very border of video installations and computer graphics. [50]
- Tamás Waliczky, in 1992 invited by Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe to complete The Garden computer animation, during a year long artist-in-residency. In 1991 Waliczky wrote the script for THE GARDEN, an animation based on an idea which came from an old piece of Super-8 film, made over ten years before, showing a little girl playing in a country garden. The artist's aim was to portray the alertness and curiosity of a small child investigating its surroundings, and to evoke the particular sense of affection that children often inspire in us. To illustrate these lines of force, Waliczky devised a new type of perspective, the "waterdrop-perspective-system". The conventional notion of perspective, dating from the Renaissance, privileges the viewer as the person for whose benefit the depiction of the world unfolds and whose gaze completes the image; the stability of his or her position is mirrored by the fixed vanishing point. "Waterdrop-perspective" is a quite different principle which structures every object from the vantage point of the child within the space of the image: the objects grow or shrink as the approaches them or moves away. Thus everything in the space becomes visually distorted; the world is seen as a sphere and the child as its centre. In other words, the depicted world is the child's own private universe; shaped entirely by the child's movements, it is independent of the viewer who stands outside it and sees the dream of another. [51]
- more: http://www.waliczky.com/pages/waliczky-biography2.htm
- Literature
- Miklós Peternák, "Hungarian Computer Art", in Beyond Art: A Third Culture. A Comparative Study in Cultures, Art and Science in 20th Century Austria and Hungary, ed. Peter Weibel, Vienna: Springer, 2005, pp 338-340. (English)
- Magyar művészek és a számítógép / Hungarian Artists and the Computer, Budapest: Hungarian National Gallery, 2016. Catalogue. [52] (Hungarian)/(English)
- Márton Orosz, "Magyarok a komputerművészet korai történetében / Hungarians in the Early History of Computer Art", pp 16-53. [53]
Video art[edit]
- Equipment, industry
- in 1976/77 equipment becomes relatively more accessible, as several cultural houses, universities, and later the Béla Balázs Studio acquire such equipment as: B/W open-reel tape and 1/2-inch Sony or Akai recorders.
- scene since mid-1980s
- 1977/79, a "video team" commences operation within the Balázs Béla Studio.
- 1980/81, Artists receive access to video equipment for individual projects (only a small number of these works remain). Newspaper articles and reports are published describing the emergence and recognition in the early eighties of the Hungarian video-cassette 'black market'. Thus, the broader public becomes 'familiar' with video.
- 1982 In addition to several non-professional film clubs, the Társulás Stúdió handles video.
- 1984 At the end of the year, MAFILM and the Béla Balázs Studio acquire professional video equipment, which essentially allows the initiation of professional Hungarian video work.
- 1989, With the introduction of the satellite in Hungary and with the spread of satellite dishes, the video-clip culture virtually booms in Hungary. The mass-production of video-clips in Hungary begins.
- Artists, works, projects
- Gábor Bódy. The lecture by Gábor Bódy entitled Infinite Mirror-Tube is presented at the Tihany Semiotics Congress. This lecture is connected to the last part of his 35mm film entitled Four Bagatelles, which can also be considered as the first Hungarian video piece. (Bódy presents a more detailed version of this lecture, Infinite Image and Reflection Total Expanded Cinema, in Edinburgh in 1978.) In 1976 the first Hungarian computer film Psychocosmoses (also on 35mm film). Television play Soldiers (1978), television play Chalk Circle (1978). 1985 Bódy finishes several works (abroad) and commences a number of works in Hungary which, owing to his sudden death, have not been completed.
- Károly Halász, Modulated TV, photo-action, 1972, serial work
- Tibor Hajas, The Guest, The Jewels of Darkness
- László Najmányi and Gergely Molnár, Ezra Pound, Flammarion Kamill, David Bowie in Budapest
- The Mozgókép Innovációs Társulás (Innovational Moving Picture Association) is established under the direction of István Dárday.
- István Dárday and Györgyi Szalay, Video on Video, 1988.
- 1990, Private Hungary a video by Péter Forgács, is awarded the Grand Prize of the Worldwide Video Festival, The Hague, and a significant prize is also awarded to András Wahorn's work, Eastern European Living Animals, at the Sydney Video Festival.
- Video magazines, video/books
- Infermental (the first international video magazine), draft in 1980/81, the first issue realised by Gábor Bódy in 1982. To date there are 10 issues of INFERMENTAL, excluding the special issues. III edited by László Beke and Péter Forgács, 1984.
- Axis, a video/book by Gábor Bódy and Veruschka Bódy, published by Dumont, 1986
- 1987, Several attempts are made at establishing video magazines in printed or cassette form, such as the Alternative Video Anthology edited by Tibor Miltényi in Budapest (only four editions), whose analogue, p'Art, is edited in Paris, and which has released eight issues up until January, 1990.
- Spring 1987, the first independent video journal, Fekete Doboz (Black Box) magazine, is instituted. 1989, the activity of Black Box is unequivocally the most significant video venture, due to its political approach which fosters popularity, in the same way as does the most important media event of the year, the televised Romanian Revolution - linked to the political changes.
- Events
- In 1977 the first international video art program is presented by Peter Weibel in Budapest at the Ganz Cultural House. A publication is produced for this occasion, which includes texts by László Beke, Tibor Hajas, László Najmányi and Dóra Maurer. (The texts are republished in 1988 by the Kossuth Cinema entitled, Video Art.)
- 1980/81 Gábor Bódy institutes the MAFILM K* (experimental) Section, which organises a large-scale hair and make-up festival the following year.
- 1983, The First Hungarian Video Festival and Symposium is organised in Nyíregyháza, this national convention subsequently held several times since then
- 1985 23 May, Kossuth Klub,Presentation of the special North-Rhein-Westphalia (Germany) edition of the INFERMENTAL international video magazine.
- 26-27 September 1985, Kossuth Klub, Parallel Screenings, The European Media Art Network is presented simultaneously in eight European cities; the program includes an anthology-like compilation, with a one-hour episode devoted to each city. Gábor Bódy compiles the Budapest component within the framework of the Társulás Stúdió.
- In Autumn 1985, Hungarian material, realised within the Béla Balázs Studio framework, is presented at the Stockholm Video Festival. László Beke presents a lecture encompassing Hungarian developments in video. This is the first survey, published in Hungarian in 1987 in the volume, Video Alfa.
- 25-27 October 1985, Nyíregyháza, Second Hungarian National Video Festival and Symposium.
- 4-5 June 1986, Hungarian National Gallery, screenings of the videos of EMAN (European Median Art Network), 4 June: Montevideo, Amsterdam; Videografia, Barcelona; Infermental, Berlin; LVA, London; 5 June: FRIGO, Lyon; Softvideo, Rome; K-videó (K-Section, the experimental department of MAFILM: the Hungarian Film Factory) group Budapest
- 29 August 1986, Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle - Chamber, The TIT Artistic Section of Budapest and the Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle present the 5th (Rotterdam) Edition of the INFERMENTAL international video magazine.
- 19 January -18 February 1987, Ernst Museum, The nine video works made by Bódy abroad between 1982 and 1985 are presented in a retrospective exhibition, within an installation realised by Gábor Bachman, and are shown for the first time in Hungary.
- 26-27 January 1987, Kossuth Klub, Presentation of the 4th Edition (1985, Lyon) INFERMENTAL international video magazine, edited by FRIGO.
- 27 January 1987, Kassák Klub, Hejettes Szomjazók (Substitute Thirsters): Cave Survey; Gábor Tóth: Performances on video; Presentation of the new video magazine, VIDEA (András Réz, Gábor Tóth)
- 26 March 1987, Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle, Presentation of Cassette I. of the Alternativ video-anthology.
- 10 April 1987, Kossuth Klub, Presentation of INFERMENTAL VI. (Vancouver, Canada). Editors: Vera Bódy and Hank Bull. Chapters: Satellite Control, Poetical Oeconomy, Telepathic Music, Fractal Grammar, Myxology
- 27 May 1987, Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle, Genre Experiments, Media Research. Editors: Vera Bódy and Hank Bull. Presentation of Cassette II. of the Alternatív video-anthology.
- 22 October 1987, Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle, Miklós Peternák - János Sugár: "Actual Closed-Circuit": Film Utopias III.
- 19-22 November 1987, Nyíregyháza, Third Hungarian National Video Festival and Symposium.
- 1988, The Hungarian Television premieres the program, Video World, which at the beginning includes thematic programs dealing with video, and gradually covers the developments of Hungarian and international video art.
- 1988, Numerous cinemas present videos, and video screening rooms within cinemas are established.
- 1988, 18 February, Szkéné Theater, Presentation of the video opera by Gábor Litván - János Sugár: The Immortal Culprits.
- 28 November 1988, Almássy tér Culture House, Hungarian presentation of INFERMENTAL VIII.
- 29 November - 2 December 1988, Kossuth Cinema, Video Art, International Panorama. 29 November: Selection from the video works of Gábor Bódy. 30 November: Selection of video works from West Germany. Zeittransgraphie (Compilation of works by the students of Martin Potthoff at the Berlin Film Academy, based on an idea of Gábor Bódy.); E.M.A.N. (European Media Art Network), K-videó group, Budapest, 1985, Társulás Studio, compiled by Gábor Bódy. 1 December: Selection of video work from Japan. 2 December: FRIGO (Lyon), French video work.
- 1989, Hungarian video works, complied by the Béla Balázs Studio, are presented at several Western and Eastern European festivals. Additionally, international video works are now more regularly screened in Hungary.
- 6-10 September 1989, Szigetvár, RETINA '89, First International Film and Video Festival. (Thereafter, a biennial festival.)
- 22-23 May 1989, ELTE (Lóránd Eötvös University of Sciences) Faculty Club, Videocommunication, professional presentation and symposium. The theme of the discussion was the Hungarian situation of higher educational training in video. Participants: Hungarian Academy of Drama and Film, Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts, MTESZ-OPAKFI, Lóránd Eötvös University of Sciences.
- 16 July 1989, Balázs Béla Studio, Péter Forgács' Mr. N.'s Diary
- 1990, The installation exhibition Distance is held at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, presenting works by Tamás Komoróczky, Csaba Nemes, Attila Szûcs and Zsolt Veress.
- 11-15 April 1990, Nyíregyháza, Fourth Hungarian National Video Festival. From the invitation: "Aims of the events: - assuring the possibility for the new communications equipment of our age, popularizing video; - presentation of the current state of domestic video, changes ensuing since the previous Festival, appraisal of development; - transmission and exchange of new information in video theory and practice, creation of the possibility for acquaintance and consultation for professionals. // We announced the following categories for competition of works produced 1987-90 in the proposed programme of the IV. Hungarian Video Festival: I. Programmes assisting Production, Education and Culture. II. Community and Public Life video programmes (cable TV, etc.). III. Video Art programmes (video art, experimental video). IV. Information and advertising programmes. V. Entertainment programmes. VI. Private videóprogrammes."
- 1991, SVB Voce, exhibition dedicated to video installations.
- Education
- 1976/77 independent art course is conducted by Miklós Erdély and Dóra Maurer, at the Ganz Cultural House Budapest, in which the participants have access to video.
- 1986 In addition to the experimental establishment of a video course at the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts, a postgraduate video department is established at the Loránd Eötvös University of Art and Sciences (ELTE). The earlier video courses are supplemented by university level video education.
- 1989, The Academy of Applied Arts graduates its first class in video.
- 1990, The Intermedia Department is established at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, in which video training plays a role.
- Resources
- History and archive of video art in Hungary 1972-2000, C3, project dir Seres and Peternák [54]
- Chronology of Hungarian video art, 1972-2000, C3, [55]
- dictionary entries (Hungarian): [56] [57]
- Literature
- Bálint Szombathy, "Video Art in the Mid-Seventies", Új Symposion 128, 1975.
- György Somogyi, Video-Visions (Mûvészet, 1977 Yearbook)
- Gábor Bódy, Creative Thinking Device, film journal Filmvilág, 1982
- The World of Video, first comprehensive collection of translated articles covering the field of video, providing information about the international developments of almost twenty years of video art and video theory, 1983.
- Vera Bódy, "Magyar Video", Mediamatic 1:4 (1987). [58]
- Sub Voce: Contemporary Hungarian Video Installation, ed. Suzanne Mészöly, Budapest: Soros Foundation Fine Art Documentation Center - Mucsarnok, 1991, 75 pp. Catalogue. Exhibition. [59] (English)/(Hungarian)
- Miklos Peternak, "Die neuen (kuenstlerischen) Medien und die ungarische Gesellschaft", [60] (German)
- Andrew J Horton, "Avant-garde Film and Video in Hungary" Central European Review (October 1998) [61] (English)
- Magyar videótörténet képekben. Film, színház, előadóművészet/Videó, DVD, Budapest: C3, 2007. Photo album, educational aid. [62] (Hungarian)
- Szilvia Seres, Miklós Peternák (eds.), History and archive of video art in Hungary 1972-2000, Budapest: C3, n.d. Online archive.
Electroacoustic and experimental music, sound art[edit]
- Péter Eötvös
- László Dubrovay
- Zoltán Jeney [63]
- László Vidovszky
- János Decsényi
- László Sáry [64] [65] [66]
- Miklós Sugár [67]
- Gyula Bánkövi [68]
- Balázs Horváth [69]
- György Ligeti (emigrated to Austria in 1956)
- Zoltán Pongrácz [70]
- Iván Patachich [71]
- Béla Faragó [72]
- Katalin Pócs [73]
- Hortobágyi László [74]
- Lois Viktor [75]
- Haraszty István édeske [76]
- Katalin Ladik
- László Végh
- Centres
- New Music Studio Budapest, founded in 1970 by many composers. Active throughout 1970s and 80s.
- Electroacoustic Music Studio of the Hungarian Radio (HEAR Studio), *1975, Budapest
- Releases
- Various – Magyar Elektronikus Zene: Hungarian Electronic Music. Hungaroton, 1979, SLPX 11851. [77]
- László Dubrovay – "A² "/ Oscillations Nos. 1-3. Hungaroton, 1979, SLPX 12030. [78]
- Zoltán Jeney – Impho 102/6 / Orpheus' Garden / A Hundred Years' Average / End Game. Hungaroton, 1979, SLPX 12059. [79]
- Gábor Kósa Works By László Kalmár / László Sáry / Gábor Kósa / György Kósa / László Dubrovay / Iván Patachich – Contemporary Hungarian Percussion. Hungaroton, 1980, SLPX 12065. [80]
- Zoltán Pongrácz – 144 Sounds: Electronic Music. Hungaroton, 1982, SLPX 12433. [81]
- Zoltán Jeney – To Apollo / For Glass And Metal / Soliloquium No. 3. Hungaroton, 1982, SLPX 12366. [82]
- Iván Patachich – Musical Electro-Alchemy. Hungaroton, 1982, SLPX 12369. [83]
- Various – Electronic Music By Young Hungarian Composers. Hungaroton, 1983, SLPX 12371. [84]
- László Dubrovay - Geiger* / Kocsis* / Dubrovay* - Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra, Budapest* / Péter Gazda - Budapest Symphony Orchestra* / Ádám Medveczky – Concertos Nos 1-2-4. Hungaroton, 1984, SLPX 12415. [85]
- Péter Eötvös* – Cricket Music - Sequences Of The Wind. Hungaroton, 1985, SLPX 12602. [86]
- Zoltán Jeney – Om. Hungaroton, 1986, SLPX 12708. [87]
- István Szigeti – Electroacoustic Compositions. Hungaroton, 1989, SLPX 31124. [88]
- László Dubrovay – Symphonia, Harmonics II, Concertino Fur Digital Klaver Und Digitales Orchester. Staalplaat, 1994, STCD 087. [89]
- Various – Aritmia. Hungaroton Classic, Magyar Rádió, 1995, HCD 31624, HCD 31624. [90]
- László Sáry – Locomotive Symphony. Budapest Music Center Records, 1998, BMC CD 010. [91]
- Miklós Sugár – Ear Mouvements. Hungaroton Classic, 1999, HCD 31788. [92]
- Zoltán Pongrácz / Iván Patachich – Hungarian Electroacoustic Music By Zoltán Pongrácz & Iván Patachich. Hungaroton Classic, 2001, HCD 31985. [93]
- Péter Eötvös* – Electrochronicle. Budapest Music Center Records, 2002, BMC CD 072. [94]
- Miklós Sugár – After Storm / Luxatio / Miniatures / Songs. Hungaroton Classic, 2003, HCD 32180. [95]
- Various – Magyar Elektronikus Zene: Hungarian Electronic Music. Creel Pone #03, 2005. [96] download
- more
- Literature
- Laszlo Dubrovay, "Hungarian Electroacoustic Music", 1994, [97]
- Zoltán Pongrácz, "Electroacoustic music in Hungary", 1992, [98]
- Gyorgy Kroó, "New Hungarian Music", in: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Sep., 1982), pp. 43-71 [99]
New media art, Media culture[edit]
- It was only in 1991 that a Hungarian exhibition, SVB Voce was dedicated to video installations. The three MetaForum symposiums in the nineties and the publications of the Media Research group contributed greatly to theoretical and conceptual developments. At the crucial point, when the Intermedia department became more established - the now famous Butterfly Effect project, an international media art exhibition and symposium was organized, bringing wide recognition to Hungarian media initiatives and eventually leading to the foundation of C3 Center for Culture and Communication.
- Cities
Budapest, Szeged, Győr, Debrecen, Pécs, Miskolc, Székesfehérvár.
- Media
- Literature
- János Sugár (ed.), Hyper text + Multimédia, notes & afterw. János Sugár, trans. Ágnes Ivacs and Gabriella Bartha, Budapest: Artpool, 1996, 64 pp; 2nd ed., corr., 1998. Anthology with texts by Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson, George P. Landow, Ian Feldman, Chuck Clifton, and chronology. (Hungarian)
- Miklós Peternák (ed.), Magyar Tartalom: Írások a magyar webkultúráról, Budapest: C3, 1997, 96 pp. [100] [101] (Hungarian)
- János Sugár, Agnes Ivacs (eds.), Buldózer: Médiaelméleti antológia, intro. János Sugár, pref. Geert Lovink, Budapest: Media Research Foundation, 1997, 220 pp. Anthology of contemporary media theory, derived from the Metaforum conference series and Nettime mailing list. (Hungarian)
- János Sugár (ed.), Digital Identity / Digitális identitás, trans. Béla Zsadon, Budapest: Media Research Foundation, 2000, 28+28 pp. Texts by Felix Stalder, Alan Sondheim. [102] [103] [104] (English)/(Hungarian)
- Iván Horváth (ed.), Contentware, Gépeskönyv Contentware Labs, 1999. [105]
- Zsuzsanna Tószegi, "A highly personal overview on Hungarian CD-ROMs", [106]
- Michal Murin, "C3. Rozhovor s Miklósom Peternákom", Profil 4, Bratislava, 2000, pp 56-64, HTML. (Slovak)
- Nina Czegledy, "Media Art: The Hungarian Model", CIAC's Electronic Art Magazine 12, 2001.
- Maja and Reuben Fowkes, "Budapest Box: The Hidden Scene in the 1990s", Umelec: Contemporary Art and Culture 3, Prague, 2002.
- Miklós Peternák, "Art Beyond the Pictorial Turn", in Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák, Paks: Paksi Képtár, 2008-2009, pp 5-17. [107]
- Monika Perenyei, A médiumok velünk vannak. Technikai képhasználat a kortárs művészetben / The Media Are With Us: The Use of Technical Images in Contemporary Art, Dunaújváros: Modern Művészetért Közalapítvány, 2012, 112 pp. [108] (Hungarian)/(English)
- Flóra Barkóczi, "A világháló utópiája. Internet és képzőművészet viszonya a rendszerváltást követő időszakban" [The Utopia of the World Wide Web. Art and Internet in Hungary after the Change of the Regime], Enigma 99, 2020, pp 78-91. [109] (Hungarian)
- Flóra Barkóczi, "Felszállópálya. A magyarországi internetes művészet gyökerei" [Airstrip. The Roots of Internet Based Art Practices in Hungary], Café Bábel 81, 2020, pp 54-67. [110] (Hungarian)
- Flóra Barkóczi, "Képzőművészet és kollektivitás a korai magyar interneten. Az Artpool, a C3 és az Éjjeli Őrjárat 1990-es évekbeli weblapja és tevékenysége" [Art and Collectivity on the Early Hungarian Internet], in A magyar internet történetei, ed. Tamás Tófalvy, Budapest: Typotex, 2021, pp 161-173. [111] [112] (Hungarian)
- TechnoCool. Új irányok a kilencvenes évek magyar képzőművészetében (1989-2001), ed. Zsolt Petrányi, Budapest: Szépművészeti Múzeum–Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Dec 2023, 308 pp. Publisher. Exh. held at the Hungarian National Gallery, 27 Oct 2023-11 Feb 2024, curated by Katalin Harangozó, Sára Major, Zsolt Petrányi, Linda Alexandra Tarr.
VIDEO
interviews. (Hungarian)- TechnoCool: The Birth of the Techno Era in Hungarian Art (1989-2001), ed. Zsolt Petrányi, Budapest: Szépművészeti Múzeum–Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2023, 308 pp. Barkóczi's essay. (English)
Art theory, Art history, Media theory[edit]
Miklós Peternák, Peter György, László Beke
- Literature
Resources[edit]
- Art Portal - database of artists [113]
Countries avant-garde, modernism, experimental art, media culture, social practice |
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