Satellite Tunes
Art from the Post-Soviet States
10.01.2008. – 30.01.2008.
Venue: Hungarian University of Fine Arts (1062 Budapest, Andrássy 69-71.)
www.mke.hu
barcsay@mke.hu

Satellite Tunes is an international exhibition featuring the works of Russian, Belorussian, Armenian, Georgian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Estonian artists.

The idea for the exhibition came into being a year ago, when the Hungarian University of Fine Arts signed agreements for cooperation with the Fine Arts Universities of Ukraine and Azerbaijan. It was at this time that the preparations for a long-term exhibition series in collaboration with the Repin Institute of St. Petersburg were undertaken.

Rather than building on these institutional partnerships, Satellite Tunes aims to present the contemporary art of former Soviet Block countries. Following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which existed for nearly seventy years, 15 member countries regained their sovereignty. In these states, the struggle for re-obtaining and creating national identity was rarely preceded by a peaceful transition. But does the burden of the (recent) past occupy the minds of (young) contemporary artists who did not grow up with Soviet songs, did not have to learn Russian in school, did not go to pioneer camp, did not participate in the "Who Knows More about the Soviet Union" game and were not taught that socialist realism was the only acceptable artistic canon?

While many in the former socialist states, including Hungary, can remember fragments of the pioneer songs that were repeated to the point of boredom during school ceremonies, the traces of history can still be read in the present tense in these countries. The effects (and processing) of the historical past can be sensed in the everyday life of the aforementioned countries. As a result of numerous economic and political factors, the term "post-soviet" is still used today as a valid and relevant designation. But does this define present coordinates to the same extent as it refers to the past? What similarities can we talk about in the context of a contemporary exhibition hallmarked by the above mentioned terminology and can this mean a common platform in the contemporary art of these countries?

The works on display in the Barcsay Hall of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts have been created in the past few years (2002-2008) with some of the exhibiting artists being freshly graduated university students. The artwork primarily deals with the relationship between the historical past and the present, the confrontation of personal and collective convictions, the points of connection between the fragments of a personal and collective past, the search for the traces and effects of the preceding decades in the present. The considerations on which the selection process was based focused not on the individual countries but on the works themselves, assigning special significance to those which were centred on the theme of processing the past.

The form this takes, however, is not related to nostalgic interpretations motivated by conservative experience, uncontrollable passion or various reactionary manifestations. Rather, using the pertinent term coined by Viktor Misiano, this is "progressive nostalgia". This self-definitive "method" of investigation, which also articulates new problematics, reflects on the new world through the presence – and understanding – of the past.

Exhibiting artists:

Vahram Aghasyan (AM), Chto Delat? / What is To Be Done? (RUS), Kristina Norman (EST)
Khinkali Juice: Nadia Tsulukidze & Sophia Tabatadze (GE), Alevtina Kakhidze (UA), Aleksander Komarov (BY / NL), Arturas Raila (LT), R.E. P. (UA)

In addition to the artwork displayed at the exhibition, we have assembled a film programme from the works of Central-Asian directors, thanks to the help and support of OSI (Open Society Institute): "Two Epochs of National Self-Determination in Central Asian Cinema"

The program features films made in the 1960s and 1990s by Turkmenian, Tajik, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Kazakh directors.

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