Re:TEXT - Experimental textile art from Velem and the Sárospatak Gallery’s collection / Velem Archive Interview Collection I.
Re:TEXT
Experimental textile art from Velem and the Sárospatak Gallery’s collection / Velem Archive Interview Collection I.
ARTISTS: Gábor Attalai, Anikó Bajkó, Judit Droppa, Lujza Gecser, Judit Gink, Kati Gulyás, Aranka Hübner, Csilla Kelecsényi, Ilona Lovas, Marianne Szabó, Zsuzsa Szenes, Margit Szilvitzky
Curated by: Kata Balázs
Co-curator: László Százados
1111 Gallery, Budapest
‘Annotating’ an ongoing research project, the exhibition presents some overlapping chapters from the history of the experimental textile movement, which flourished in the seventies and eighties. The first chapter, which forms the core of the exhibition, is comprised by the textile section of the Sárospatak Gallery’s corpus known today as the “Avant-garde Collection”. These textile works were among the first to be acquired by the institution’s collection in the early eighties thanks to the collecting endeavours László Lengyel, Tamás Török and András Bán. Prior to the exhibition entitled Position this summer, this collection had last been put on public display forty years ago. The other chapter comprises the history of the Textile Workshop of Velem, regarded as the centre of experimental textile art in Hungary, the exploration of which was started three years ago by 11_11 in the form of an oral history video archive, and the project now continues in cooperation with acb ResearchLab. So far, nine video interviews have been made with former members of the Velem workshop and
theoreticians associated with it. The first areas of intersection between the two chapters are delineated by the works of some of these artists, which can be found in the collection at Sárospatak, as well as the praxis of András Bán, who was a frequent visitor in Velem and has shown particular interest in experimental textile art. The positions of the institution’s museology practice at the time were recorded by the selections exhibited in 1983 in Budapest, at the Lajos Street Exhibition Hall of the Council of Budapest, and then on two successive occasions in 1984, at the Hermann Ottó Museum in Miskolc and then at the Rákóczi Castle in Sárospatak. These exhibitions, held under the title Situation. The Art of the Seventies at the Sárospatak Gallery were important points of reference for Re:TEXT.
The corpus of the Sárospatak collection is complemented by Kati Gulyás’ Ketrec (c.1979), which was featured in the exhibitions held in Miskolc and Sárospatak four decades ago, held in trust by the institution at the time. The work by Judit Gink, also exhibited at the time as an artwork in trust, was substituted with a piece made specifically during her stay at the Velem artists’ colony of 1982. Some of the subjects of the interviews conducted in this first phase, Anikó Bajkó, Judit Droppa and Csilla Kelecsényi are each represented in the exhibition with an early work – also related to Velem. In recent times, Gábor Attalai has rarely appeared in a textile context, even though he is considered one of the most important artists and organisers in the history of textile art. Our exhibition focuses on the versatility of his experiments with felt. It is by bringing together all these directions – drawing an axis between the easternmost and westernmost regions of the country, as it were – that Re:TEXT aims to present the intertwined histories of Hungarian experimental textile art and link its two generations. At the same time, the diversity of genres within textile – ranging from miniature textiles through conceptual textiles to performance documentations – reveals, in an almost imperceptible but perhaps all the more unveiling manner, the personal dimensions of Hungarian experimental textile art and the spirit of Velem, the memories associated with it and the community that formed around it.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Gábor Attalai, Anikó Bajkó, Judit Droppa, Lujza Gecser, Judit Gink, Kati Gulyás, Aranka Hübner, Csilla Kelecsényi, Ilona Lovas, Marianne Szabó, Zsuzsa Szenes, Margit Szilvitzky
CURATOR: Kata Balázs
CO-CURATOR: László Százados
Opening remarks by art historian and critic András Bán.
VERNISSAGE: 26 September 2024, 6 pm
FINISSAGE: 8 November 2024
1111 Gallery, 1 Kende Street, 1111 Budapest
Thanks to the National Cultural Fund, Jászi Gallery, Nemes Gallery, Vintage Gallery, Jaskó Beatrix / Sárospatak Gallery for their support in realising the exhibition.
ARTISTS AND ART HISTORIANS FEATURED IN THE VIDEOS: Anikó Bajkó, András Bán, Judit Droppa, Péter Fitz, György Galántai, Kati Gulyás, Ilona Lovas, Csilla Kelecsényi, Villő Steiner.
INTERVIEWERS: Kata Balázs, Eszter Márkus, László Százados
EDITOR: Kata Balázs
CAMERA, VIDEO EDITING: Zsuzsanna Simon
The Velem Archive is a project of 11_11. Cooperating partner: acb ResearchLab
