Crisis or bloom? Debates on Art in the 1980s no. 2

What was the 1980s in Hungarian art? Was it the democratization of the art system or the beginning of its market transformation? Was it the decade of when avant-garde died, or when it was institutionalized? Was it the heyday of the underground or of painting?

The 1980s are both far away and close to us: fewer and fewer key players are active, but despite the emerging research efforts on the art of the decade, we still do not have a clear understanding of it. This series of discussions, organised in the framework of KEMKI's research project about the 1980s, aims to bring us one step closer to understanding the dynamics of the decade's cultural changes.

In the second part of the series, we will focus on total art, on the collaborative and experimental phenomena of the 1980s. We will discuss the following topics with our guests: Can the Gesamtkunstwerk characteristics of the 1980s be considered a continuation of the neo-avant-garde or should we consider it uniquely postmodern? How did postmodern new painting and experimental art coexist? How did the new audiovisual technologies that appeared during the decade influence the visual arts?

Participants:

Vera Baksa-Soós, art organizer, editor of the videoart magazine Infermental during the period

János Sugár, visual artist, member of the Indigo group and the Balázs Béla Studio during the period

János Vető, visual artist, member of the Zuzu-Vető artist duo and the Trabant band during the period

Moderators: Flóra Barkóczi and Júliusz Huth (KEMKI)

Location: 1135 Budapest, Szabolcs utca 33–35 . Building C (Bródy Zsigmond and Adél Event Space)

Date: 27 November 2025, 5 PM