20:00–21:00 CHB Moholy-Nagy Hall, 2nd floor Peasants in Atmosphere The Peasants in Atmosphere group attempts to give an interpretation of the heritage of traditional Hungarian culture, critically considering the progressive strains of contemporary art alongside a new generation of Táncház – a Hungarian Dance-House movement, in the form of collaborative work based on extensive research. Throughout this research process, an emphasis is placed on the study of the works of the artist collective – one could say progenitors – that, with progress in mind, found inspiration in the culture of Hungarian peasantry. Beside the founding musicians of the Dance-House, the research focuses on movements of the early Hungarian avant-garde, particularly on the young activists coalescing around Lajos Kassák. Influenced by the revolutionary thoughts of Bartók, they turned their attention to vernacular culture, towards an indisputable evidence of unity between ’nations incited against each other and commanded onto battlefields’ – as well as on representatives of an “other Hungary” in which Bartók recognized the possibility of intellectual renewal. The project’s title is a further reference to this period. Peasants in Atmosphere is a poem by József Lengyel that was premiered in 1917 at the first arts matinee of Lajos Kassák’s MA journal with Bartók and Schönberg pieces. With the title an act of self-criticism, the group acknowledges that just in the case of the above-mentioned movements, serving different ideologies the culture of the defenceless peasantry is yet again being appropriated and arbitrarily staged as part of a certain atmosphere. Founder: Dominika Trapp Participants: Márton Bertók, Katalin Éri, Botond Keresztesi, Ildikó Kele, Ádám Kiss-Balbinat, Andor Maruzsenszki, Lilla Neményi, Áron Porteleki, Krisztián Puskár, Erika Szurcsik, Dominika Trapp Funded by OFF-Biennale Budapest and supported by NKA.
Photo: András Kollmann
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