A mixed media exhibition on the history and the present of the Jewish Quarter of Budapest
Zita Mara Vadász, curator 585,000 m2 proposes a dialogue about the symbolic spaces found in the Jewish Quarter of the 7th district in Budapest through visual art statements from the pre-World War 2 period to the present. The title is a reference to the surface area of the Quarter, a dense urban neighborhood overflowing with signifiers of cultural, religious and social life. Nine buildings were selected to explore three important aspects of Jewish life: the sacred spaces, public places and local businesses.
The exhibition is a mix of archival and contemporary photographs, a musical piece, composed exclusively for this show and individual video works by nine young Hungarian artists who reflect upon the select buildings aiming to research and relate their stories and their functions. The contributors, coming from diverse personal and artistic backgrounds, used different scenarios and artistic strategies in their works, expressing their own cultural and personal memories in this project.
The exhibition invites the audience to step into the Quarter which – through the past decade – has transformed itself enormously to become the bright spot it is today, which helped forming the identity and character of a new generation that includes the artists of this exhibition.
Participating artists: Zsuzsi Flohr, Zsófia Szemző, Márton Szirmai, Dániel Halász, István Illés, Levente Csordás in collaboration with Airplan X Kickass Factory, Balázs Varju Tóth, Mátyás Csiszár, Milán Kopasz along with Csaba Kalotás (music) and Éva Szombat (photography).
Curated by Andrea Ausztrics, scholar and media artist and Zita Mara Vadász, curator, Balassi Institute – Hungarian Cultural Center, New York.
Presented by Balassi Institute-Hungarian Cultural Center in association with Tom Lantos Institute, the Consulate General of Hungary in New York, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, the Hungarian National Tourist Office in New York.