Trafó Gallery Budapest
26 October – 26 November 2006

Holden Gallery Manchester
3 February - 28 February 2007

Norwich Gallery
21 March - 21 April 2007

Galerija Miroslav Kraljević Zagreb
14 June - 6 July 2007

Michael Blum (Austria), Nick Crowe (UK), Igor Grubić (Croatia), Sanja Iveković (Croatia), Gergely László / Péter Rákosi (Hungary), Nils Norman (UK) and Adrian Paci (Italy).

Curators: Maja and Reuben Fowkes

works
biographies
publication

The international exhibition ‘Revolution is not a Garden Party’ considers the resonances of social and political revolution in contemporary art against the backdrop of the 50 th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising.

The exhibition consists of new and recent works that examine the global economic and political context against which revolutions take place, as well as the intersection between personal and artistic heritages of revolution. It expresses the sorrow of failed political struggles in the past and the future, and considers the shared experience of a communist past and the post-communist reality. Other concerns include the experience of revolutionary literature, the gendered images of resistance fighters in contemporary media, and the legacy of 1956 for the relationship of art and revolution.

As the first major popular rebellion against Soviet domination and the communist system in Eastern Europe, 1956 was a vital precursor of later revolutionary struggles. At the same time, it was part of wider geo-political shifts, such as the movement for decolonisation, and had cultural as well as political ramifications across Europe. In the history of art, the demolition of the Budapest Stalin Statue was the ultimate symbol of the decline of Socialist Realism. The truth about revolution is part of a contested history, a living process of rewriting and interpretation in which art takes a decisive part.

The exhibition catalogue brings together the artistic response to contemporary revolution represented by the exhibition and new reflections on the relationship between art and revolution by theorists and art historians. It includes illustrations and interviews with the artists, and new essays by Gerald Raunig, Benda Hofmeyr, Simon Sheikh, Chus Martinez and Maja and Reuben Fowkes that engage with issues such as art and revolution, aesthetics and politics, and ecology and anarchism. Additionally, responses to individual works in the exhibition highlight the variety of experiences and understandings of revolution in the context of contemporary art.
www.cornerhouse.org/books

A programme of side events will accompany the exhibition:

SocialEast Seminar on Art and Documentary
10 November 2006 Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art Budapest

SocialEast Seminar on Art and Revolution
Manchester Art Gallery 10-5pm 3 February 2007

Plus:
Socialist Memory:Documentary Approaches in Contemporary Art
Films by: Anri Sala, Zbynek Baladran, Arturas Raila, Goran Dević and Johanna Billing


Supported by: