REVOLUTION IS NOT A GARDEN PARTY

Trafo Gallery Budapest (October 2006)
Holden Gallery Manchester (February 2007)
Norwich Gallery (April 2007)
Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic (June 2007)

The international exhibition ‘Revolution is not a Garden Party’ is envisaged as a tribute to the revolutionary spirit of the Hungarian Uprising and considers the resonances of social and political revolution in contemporary art.

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 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.

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

Exhibition website
www.translocal.org/revolution

Supported by:
European Cultural Foundation
Croatian Ministry of Culture
Hungarian Ministry of Culture
ACAX - Budapest