Artists

Márton Nemes, Oto Hudec, Lesia Khomenko, Joseph Beuys, Jean Tinguely, Hervé Di Rosa, Domenico Gnoli, Pablo Picasso, Ion Grigorescu, Andy Warhol, Flaka Haliti, Mladen Stilinović, Róza El-Hassan, Dan Perjovschi, Jenny Holzer, A.R. Penck, Andreas Fogarasi, Roy Lichtenstein, Attila Csörgő, Ciprian Muresan, József Csató, A-ONE, Bálint Bori, Imre Bukta, David Csicskan, DAZE, Jiří David, Károly Elekes, Richard Estes, László Fehér, Nat Finkelstein, János Fodor, FUTURA 2000, Gérard Gasiorowski, Sighard Gille, Kitti Gosztola, Gyula Gulyás, Péter Tamás Halász, Sámuel Havadtőy, Bernhard Heisig, Geoffry Hendricks, Judit Hersko, Gideon Horváth, Jörg Immendorf, Teppei Kaneuji, Balázs Kicsiny, Kinder Album, Szabolcs Kisspál, Katalin Kortmann-Járay, Lady Pink, László Lakner, Jean-Jacques Lebel, LLRRLLRR, Ilona Lovas, Imre Nagy, T. G. Nazarenko, Csaba Nemes, NOC 167, István Nyári, Jefhen Nyikiforov, Gyula Pauer, A. Ny. Petrov, Uwe Pfeiffer, Gábor Pintér, Valéria Sass, Konrad Smoleński, Tamás St.Auby, Volker Stelzmann, János Sugár, Ágnes Szabó, Beáta Széchy, Teofan Szokerov, Joe Tilson, Toxic, Kata Tranker, János Vető, Wolf Vostell

Press release

Since its foundation in 1989, the museum’s collection has grown by over a thousand items. The periodic exhibitions of the collection organised regularly are mostly curatorial selections based on a specific theme, a particular characteristic or a particular point of view. The period of about seventy years in which the works were created also means that works from different periods and thus different contexts form the basis of the selections. In addition to reconstructing and preserving the original contexts and meanings, the historical perspective allows new connections to be made and other contexts to be explored. The Big Bang compilation shows the evolution of the museum’s collection, starting from the timeline of acquisitions. This chronologically unfolding plane is intersected by the logic of the thematic perspective: the exhibition is presented in its own chronological order, divided into separate sections, and presents a unique cross-section of the continuously growing collection. To use an analogy, the selection is like a “family history” told in parallel narratives, a family album of the collection, if you like, which also presents a number of unseen “relatives” (works), and also gives a glimpse of the individual works’ own micro-history, the collection’s focal points and the aspects of the collection. The selection does not necessarily follow art historical stylistic concepts. It focuses on broader themes and leitmotifs rather than aesthetic categories. In the twelve units, the curator explores themes such as the influence of pop culture on art, the idea or the concept as a work of art, hyperrealism that goes far beyond technical brilliance, and the notion of the post-contemporary, which has become widespread in recent years and is not without its contradictions, to describe a typical range of artworks. Through the works on display, visitors can learn about the place and role of street art or graffiti in contemporary art, the importance of machines and movement, or ecological art that focuses on environmental awareness and conservation, which goes beyond the walls of the gallery to become an active participant in the social dialogue about our environment. Big Bang is a commonly used term in the standard cosmological model of the origin of the universe, which says that our world was born from a dense, hot state by an explosive expansion about 14 billion years ago. In the context of the exhibition, the term refers first and foremost to the dynamic growth of the museum’s collection, both in terms of numbers and in nature, since its inception: the initial collection has multiplied many times over, while new genres, techniques and media have been incorporated. In addition, the scope of the museum’s collections, both international and national, has changed, expanding to new cultural-geographical regions (South-Eastern Europe) and countries (e.g. Albania, Kosovo, Ukraine, etc.), as has the range of artists represented. Big Bang is thus a metaphor to describe and characterise the building of a collection from its origins (foundation). Curator: Készman József