21 Apr 2015

OFF-Biennale Budapest / Invitation to the Opening Weekend April 24–26, 2015

OFF-Biennale Budapest
Invitation to the Opening Weekend
April 24–26, 2015


We are very pleased to invite you to the opening weekend of the first OFF-Biennale Budapest, taking place from Friday April 24th through Sunday April 26th, 2015. With more than 120 projects in over 50 venues, the OFF-Biennale grew out of the collaboration of more than 300 artists, collectives, curators, gallerists, and collectors locally and from abroad, who aim to establish a base for a sustainable, independent art scene in Hungary. Organized without any institutional backing, the OFF-Biennale Budapest does not use any local state funds or state-run art venues and relies on pro bono professional work.

The thematic focus of the program is to explore the ways in which art contributes to the development of civil society. In the absence of any significant private and corporate support for contemporary art, the state's funding and infrastructure have a decisive, almost exclusive power over the local art scene. This influence, when centralized and abused for the sake of a political agenda, has had a restrictive, debilitating effect on our civil and artistic communities. We aim to reduce these communities' dependence on the state by building new partnerships and using new methods of operation. The OFF-Biennale Budapest thus puts an emphasis on artistic positions, mostly from the region known as Central-Eastern Europe, that intend to develop an engaged relationship with the audience, while working with very limited material means.

Participants include:
Carlos Amorales, Daniela Baráčková, Hilla Ben Ari, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Celine Condorelli, István Csákány, Gabriella Csoszó, Attila Csörgő, Dobrila Denegri, Miklós Erdély, Fokus Grupa, Andreas Fogarasi, Péter Forgács, Kendell Geers, Goldin + Senneby, Alenka Gregorič, Igor Grubić, Heidrun Holzfeind, Sven Johne, Tamás Kaszás, Barbora Klímová, Meiro Koizumi, Ádám Kokesch, Eva Kotátkova, Susanne Kriemann, Anton Lederer & Margarethe Makovec, Zbigniew Libera, Little Warsaw, Tevž Logar, Maha Maamoun, Dóra Maurer, Mladen Miljanović, Edit Molnár, Ivan Moudov, Daniel Muzyczuk, Csaba Nemes, Hajnal Németh, Adrian Paci, Lívia Páldi, Krsto Papić, Dan Perjovschi, tranzit.hu-Alexandra Pirici – Manuel Pelmuş, Tomáš Pospiszyl, Łukasz Ronduda, Roee Rosen, Clara S Rueprich, Katarina Šević, Kati Simon, Société Réaliste, Borbála Soós, Technica Schweiz, Ulay, Tomáš Vaněk, Clemens Von Wedemeyer, Ana Witt, Katarina Zdjelar etc.


Instead of fast-changing prepositions – 'post', 'anti', 'neo', 'trans', and 'sub' – that suggest an implacable movement forward, against and beyond, and try desperately to be 'in', I propose to go 'off': 'Off' as in 'off quilter', 'off Broadway, 'off the path,' or 'way off', 'off-brand', 'off the wall', and occasionally, 'off-color.' – wrote Svetlana Boym, whose Off-Modern theory served as inspiration for naming the project.

For further information check www.offbiennale.hu

We look forward to welcoming you!

The curatorial team of the OFF-Biennale Budapest:
Nikolett Erőss, Anna Juhász, Hajnalka Somogyi, Tijana Stepanovic, Borbála Szalai, Katalin Székely, János Szoboszlai
Core idea: Hajnalka Somogyi