You Only Live Twice: the Strange Afterlife of Socialist Realist Sculpture
Published in Matter and History (Bucharest: Centre for Visual Introspection, 2011)

This essay aims to locate socialist realist public sculpture within the ideological and material framework of Stalinist Eastern Europe and examine how these monuments functioned at the time, their importance to the ideological system of socialist utopianism, and the peculiar radicalism of this totalizing artistic experiment without borders, which coexists uneasily with its ostensible aesthetic conservatism...(more)

RECLAIMING LUKACS:
Interventions in the Archive of a Marxist Philosopher
IDEA Art + Society no.35 (November 2010)

Overlooking the Danube in central Budapest is the spacious archive of György Lukács, housed in the philosopher’s residence for the last three decades of his life, which on the evening of 12 May 2010 became a site for bold artistic encounters with his legacy. Although only Hungarian artists were involved, and the event had the characteristics of an exclusive local happening, its significance arguably went beyond the national frame by addressing the discord between Lukács’s unassailable international status as the founder of Western Marxism and his reputation as a hardcore communist in Hungary. The question haunting any contemporary engagement with Lukács is how to reconcile these two positions within a global historical perspective...(more)

Contemporary East European Art in the Era of Globalisation: From Identity Politics to Cosmopolitan Solidarity
ArtMargins (September 2010)

This article examines the changing interests of contemporary artists in Eastern Europe in recent years, from disillusionment with the grand narratives of memory, trauma and collective identity that characterised much art production in the first post-communist decade, to the emergence of a new post-national sensibility, with artists drawn to explore new forms of cosmopolitan solidarity that go beyond the traditional boundaries of identity politics. The work of prominent contemporary artists is discussed in the context of a shift away from the strategic construction of national and regional identities, to an understanding of the effects on East European societies and art worlds of a continuous process of de-territorialisation, migration and border blurring, to the rhythm of a synchronous global cultural scene...(more)

The Past Reloaded
Time Out Budapest (June 2012)

Until recently, the story of Budapest’s public monuments since the revolution of 1989 appeared to be a closed chapter. The worst offending bronzes from the communist era, such as portraits of Lenin and liberating Soviet soldiers, were removed from city squares and relocated to a custom-built statue park on the outskirts of town where, stripped of their political gravitas and quarantined from public space, they could be enjoyed as ironic relics of the past or even for their aesthetic qualities. Less controversial statues were left in peace, while some monuments were modified or transformed to rid them of their socialist connotations. Today however the debate around the fate of surviving left-leaning monuments to cultural and historical figures originally favoured by the communist regime has been dramatically reopened, while apologists for Admiral Horthy have begun to clamour for a statue of Hungary’s controversial wartime leader...(more)

PowerGames: Testing the Boundaries of Contemporary Democracy (catalogue text, Ludwig Museum Budapest, 2010)

The instability and contingency of social reality that is in sharp contrast with the conventions of political rhetoric provides a starting point for an array of contemporary artistic investigations. In this sense, power exercised through political decision making, national institutions and media constructions is met by artistic strategies of deconstructing national myths, exposing racist subtexts or providing subversive insights...(more)

The Possibility of the Post-National in Contemporary East European Art paper at the CAA Conference in Chicago in February 2010 on the panel Transformation Reconsidered: ‘Utopias’, Realities and National Traditions in Post-1989 Central Europe.

This paper discusses the changing understanding of the national in contemporary art since the End of Communism and the shift of interest during the second post-communist decade away from issues of identity in both its national and regional formulations towards an exploration of the possibilities of a post-national sense of belonging, associated with the deterritorialisation and synchronicity of the globalised cultural scene in the era of post-transition...(more)

Planetary Forecast: The Roots of Sustainability in the Radical Art of the 1970s
(Third Text 100 Special Issue (Sept 2009)

This article explores the extent to which ecological awareness and the specific concerns of environmental sustainability are manifest in the critical writings of artists and curators in the early 1970s. Many of the issues later identified by theorists of sustainability, such as consideration of social equality and genuine democracy, as well as the recognition that quality of life is not just a matter of monetary income, were extensively explored in the radical art of the period. While Gustav Metzger was writing about the ethical issues raised by technological innovation, on the other side of the Iron Curtain curator Laszló Beke focused on the overproduction of art objects and Slovak artist Rudolf Sikora published the Limits of Growth (1972) in samizdat. These prophetic art texts are now ripe for rediscovery in the context of current attempts to grapple with the social and ecological consequences of neo-liberal globalisation and its crisis...(more)

Revolutionary Decadence:
Foreign Artists in Budapest since 1989
(Catalogue MMU/Museum Kiscell, Oct 2009)

Revolutionary Decadence is the last in a trilogy of exhibitions investigating the revolutionary moments of recent history and takes as its subject the contribution of foreign artists to the Hungarian art scene since 1989. While the first exhibition focussed on 1956 as a year of revolutionary insurrection and dealt with artistic reflections on the possibilities of revolution, the second exhibition took as its starting point the revolutionary atmosphere in the period around 1968, perceived as the first global resistance movement, and questioned its legacy for contemporary artistic strategies. The Revolution Trilogy closes with the sequence that began in 1989 and focuses on the effect of the changes on a single community in one locality, namely the enclave of foreign artists within the Budapest art world, and examines their participation in libratory forms of sociability, negotiation of the politics of belonging, and contribution to a post-national understanding of contemporary art in post-communist Europe...(more)

How Philosophers Get Curated
Art Monthly (Jan 2009)

Asks what are the reasons for the proliferation of philosophers in the world of contemporary art? Have philosophers overtaken the role of art critics in providing legitimation for the mechanisms and structures of the art world? Published in Art Monthly January 2009...(more)

From Post-Communism to Post-Transition:Art in Eastern Europe
The Art Book (Feb 2009)

In the first decade after the Fall of the Berlin Wall the label ‘post-communism’ appeared as the most appropriate term to refer to the overall situation in Eastern Europe and was applied in the first major survey show of the contemporary art of the region. Today, the pressures of the present outweigh the burden of the past to such an extent that contemporary art in Eastern Europe is fast moving beyond the ‘transition’ into uncharted territory...(more)

Special Issue: Socialist Eastern Europe (Introduction)
(Third Text, Vol. 23, Issue 1, January, 2009)

The SocialEast Forum considers the art and visual culture of Eastern Europe through collaborative projects, exhibitions and seminars. The forum is based on cooperation between leading scholars from across Europe, as well as the involvement of curators, artists and other professionals who deal in their work with issues of art and memory. The goal of SocialEast is to encourage comparative research into the art history of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, as well as to examine how a revised understanding of the achievements and circumstances of East European art impacts on global interpretations of art history. This special issue of Third Text is made up of a selection...(more)

Revolution I Love You (Introduction)
Revolution I Love You [catalogue] (MMU/CACT/Trafo, 2008)

‘Revolution, I Love You’ is a slogan from May ’68 that recalls the exuberance, deep desire for change and belief in the possibility of freedom illuminating a precious moment of universal revolt.   The exhibition investigates 1968 as an interlude of liberty and global resistance, focussing on the interplay between the politics of the street, radical philosophy, and the explosion of creative responses in the period. It considers the modalities of the unrest across Europe against the backdrop of contrasting economic and political systems in East and West...(more)

Towards the Ecology of Freedom
GROUND UP: Re-Considering Contemporary Art Practice in the Rural Context (2008)

It is perfectly possible for contemporary art to be sustainable without having a direct political or environmental message, as long as it meets the requirements of not damaging the environment and not being exploitative. Many contemporary art projects however resist the simple binary opposition between engaged and non-instrumental art, no longer so much for the sake of the ambiguity prized by the art market, but because they refuse to compromise the autonomy of art by submitting to external discourses. It is precisely the autonomy that art nurtures in society that gives art its sovereignty, or the power to be critical and explore alternatives. The singular creativity of artists puts them in a unique and increasingly recognised position to be free...(more)

The Ecology of Post-Socialism
Art and Theory After Socialism (Plymouth, 2008)

The year of the Rio Summit marked the end of the optimistic period following the fall of the Berlin Wall, as countries were confronted with the hard realities of international Realpolitik. Perhaps it was the disintegration of the ideological polarities of the Cold War that made it possible for the notion of sustainability to emerge in the context of a global understanding of ecological and social crisis...(more)

Rational, Responsible and Free
Revolution is Not a Garden Party [catalogue] (MMU, 2007)

Social ecology encompasses the classical anarchist view that while society and human beings are naturally social and cooperative, there has throughout history been a struggle with an opposing tendency towards domination and hierarchy. Periodically the tension between the libertarian and authoritarian approaches has resulted in uprisings and popular rebellions and even if they were short lived or ended in failure, as the brief moment of revolution seems inevitably to be followed by a period of reaction, the overall movement has been towards expanding the potential for human freedom...(more)

The Hidden Depths of Hungarian Art
Arrivals>Art From The New Europe (Modern Art Oxford, 2007)

Approached from the top, through the most obvious channels and institutions, Hungarian art structures can give the impression of being stuck in a time warp, oblivious to international trends, and indifferent to contemporary art. The weakness of major institutions is however more than compensated for by the activities of medium size galleries, both non-profit and commercial, and small-scale independent spaces, as well as the dynamic initiatives of artists themselves...(more)