2012

On the Ground 1989-94
September 18, 2012 - November 4, 2012

Rodolf Hervé's Photos and Videos

The new exhibition at Galeria Centralis, OSA presents underground culture and social changes after the regime change, looking at the period from 1989 to 1994 through the lens of Rodolf Hervé's camera.

Rodolf Hervé was a French artist and photographer who arrived in Budapest in the last days of 1989. Being a foreigner of Hungarian origin, he had a special perspective on life in the years of the regime change, while participating actively and intensely in the subculture life of the period. He regarded himself primarily as a "perpetual and dissatisfied person" rather than an artist, as one who is interested in a wide range of issues, for whom art and life are the same.

Rodolf Hervé was inspired by the transitory years in which the old rules no longer appled but no new rules were in place...

 
Kádár 100 - In His Own Words
May 31, 2012 - July 29, 2012

János Kádár was born 100 years ago. As General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, he dominated the period between the crushed revolution of 1956 and the fall of the communist regime. Kádár’s career was shaped by Hungary’s turbulent 20th century, with its lost wars and dictatorships. For many, Kádár is still a living memory – and a highly controversial historical personality. Surveys show that the majority of Hungarians consider Kádár either as a highly influential and popular political leader or as a dictator, the traitor and blood-stained suppressor of the 1956 revolution.

By objectively presenting Kádár’s life and career, the exhibition is intended to compare the nostalgic image that still remains in public memory with the real historical person, in order to dispel the “Kádár-myth” and offer the public a true...

 
Dead Library - Books Unread
February 28, 2012 - April 22, 2012

For the purposes of the exhibition we have selected five thousand books that were published between 1945 and 1989, in Hungary, in Hungarian, on topics of general interest, which have not been checked out since 1989. Visitors can browse and read these books in Galeria Centralis until April 22, 2012, from 10 am to 6 pm every day, except for Monday, OSA Archivum has organized several exhibitions on preservation, classification, collection and sharing. The Dead Library is the latest event in the series.

The exhibition is a library installation, showing a typical branch library. The 300-square-meter space is dominated by bookshelves, on which the books are arranged in the standard library thematic order from technical and agricultural works to youth literature, arts and fiction. The only difference between a traditional library and...