Organising the Spectacle: Research on the Avantgarde

Project leader: Eszter Őze

Our research on the avantgarde examines the media, institutional changes and series of events that characterised the period in the context late 19^th-early 20^th century social movements and mass culture. It goes beyond the aesthetic interpretations of art and approaches it through its social embeddedness and international framework, in line with methods and inquiries from the interdisciplinary crossovers of social history and art theory, such as urbanism, sociology of art, intellectual history, and cultural transfer.

In the research, which will be launched in 2022, initiating international collaborations will be a priority, with a primary focus on the Central and Eastern European region. As a first step in this direction, an international conference of the European Society for Periodical Research (ESPRit), an organisation of interdisciplinary journal research, was held in Budapest in 2022, jointly with the Kassák Museum. Our shared participation in the research on Exploring Labour Relations Through History and Art with the research team of COST Action “Worlds of Related Coercions in Work” was another such step. In 2024, examining the artworks and oeuvres of Hungarian and regional visual artists working abroad will be a major focus of the research, and can be regarded as a continuation of research related to the joint exhibition of Hungarian National Gallery and Berlinische Galerie, Magyar Modern (Hungarian Modernists).

Events that have taken place:

• Malevich and Interwar Modernism - Conversation with art historian Éva Forgács, 23. 11. 2023
• 10th International ESPRit Conference (KEMKI, Budapest, 09. - 07. 09. 2022)