Artists

Eva Koťátková, Oto Hudec, Nam June Paik, Oleksiy Sai, Krištof Kintera, Andreas Fogarasi, Société Réaliste, Peter Weibel, Ciprian Muresan, Szabolcs Kisspál, Blue Noses, Lőrinc Borsos, Luchezar Boyadjiev, István Csákány, Endri Dani, Orshi Drozdik, Marcell Esterházy, István B. Gellér, Pál Gerber, Tamás Kaszás, Zsófia Keresztes, Antal Lakner, Yevgen Nikiforov, Péter Puklus, Gentian Shkurti, Pál Szacsva y, Tibor Szalai, Bálint Szombathy, Technologie und das Unheimliche (T + U), Gyula Várnai, Tamás Waliczky

Press release

The Ludwig Museum’s collection, which has been developing and expanding for several decades, features a number of contemporary works that deal with imaginary visions of the future or interpret the present as a dystopian reflection of the past in some way. These are artistic thought experiments that paint a dark picture of the possible future or present, connecting the current and the future in time, offering a glimpse into the future of humanity. The dystopian idea, as one of the extreme values of possible realities, is also a model, a point of reference, the contemplation of which is natural and necessary for understanding actual reality, and in this sense it is both a tool and a method. As the first stage of a longer-term research project, the exhibition examines the works in the collection through the concept of dystopia and includes other works by artists featured in the collection in this exploration. The selected works represent the discourse that has been taking place recently, primarily in the Hungarian art scene, which the exhibition analyzes along various thematic paths. This phase serves as a preparatory stage for a broader inquiry, laying the groundwork for a more comprehensive analysis of our present, current interpretations of the concept of dystopia, and contemporary artistic visions of the future. In addition to statements about visions of the future and possible conditions of the world, the exhibition also asks: “Has it not become colder?” (F. Nietzsche, The Gay Science) Dystopia is a fictional representation of the world that presents negative developments in the present or future, usually through totalitarian, technocratic, or dehumanising structures. The central element of the dystopian worldview is social oppression, which involves control mechanisms at the collective level and limited freedom, loss of identity, and moral dilemmas at the individual level. The concept of dystopia, which can be interpreted as a separate category in the history of ideas, is usually defined in relation to utopia (anti-utopia), but it is also subject to strong conceptual relativism. In contrast to utopia, which is the guiding idea of an ideal society, dystopia describes a radically opposite world, where the fictional world is always worse than the existing one. Dystopia as anti-utopia serves primarily as a (dark) mirror: the conditions and characteristics of the world it depicts amplify the negative aspects of the observer’s world. By magnifying our inner fears, it helps us understand what kind of future we want to avoid. Dystopia thus offers a radical critique of current social trends, a conceptual mapping of the crisis symptoms of modernity, which is also a source of anxiety. Curators: Borbála KÁLMÁN, József KÉSZMAN