Synchronised – Contemporary connections with classics

The Living Collection is a unique show that stirs up the museum’s life. Unlike our temporary shows, which are usually arranged in one exhibition space, the Living Collection occupies every nooks and corners of the Hungarian National Gallery’s building, inviting visitors, to take an exhibition tour. It encourages them to explore the permanent exhibitions, as this show will not only reinvent the exhibition space, but thanks to its lively and interactive character it will also allow an insight into the professional work carried out in the museum. Out of the almost five thousand sculptures in the Hungarian National Gallery’s rich collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century sculptures, barely a hundred or so are regularly on public display.

Between September 2017 and January 2019, ten exhibitions were staged in the rooms of the permanent exhibitions of the Hungarian National Gallery. Our aim was to breathe NEW LIFE into these material, and to make it more VISIBLE with the help of contemporary artists. The project also ties in with an ongoing research of classical influences in contemporary (sculpture) art, as well as the survival of Hungarian sculptural traditions in present-day works.

Programme
11.00 am – 13.00 pm Workshop – From plain to space, from space to plain
Starting from the idea of the Living Collections, this time visitors can reflect on pieces from the collections. We are not only experiment with various materials, but we also play with space and plain. The sculptures turn into plain surfaces and the paintings into plastic artworks. Our favourite artworks are reinterpreted in our hands.

12.00 am The Future in the Past – Guided tour in English by Zsófia Albrecht in the permanent exhibition Shifts – Hungarian Art after 1945

12.00 pm| 12.20 pm | 12.40 pm | 14.00 pm | 14.20 pm Performances of Cipolla Collectiva, reflecting on the pairs of sculptures

15.30 pm – 16.30 pm The performance of the MÖRK orchestra
The performance called Reflection du Mörk is trying to bring the visitors closer to each pair of sculptures of the Living Collection. A short, half-improvised music piece will be played by every pair of sculpture. The orchestra, sticking to the original conception and trying to summon the lenaemant of the classical pieces, but inspired by the contemporary sculptures and by the ’guerilla-style’ of the exhibition, they will enjoy the artistic freedom. The primary goal is to address the audience, to break the „museum ambiance” and to update and reinterpret the classical values.