Hello From the Other Side

Free admission:
September 1, 2018 - September 23, 2018
Every day 14 am – 10 pm
Other location: Valyo Kikötő – Capa Kikötő (1 Hajóállomás street, 1095 Budapest)
Curator: Emese Mucsi

Graphic design: Gabi Halász | Translation: Vera Bakonyi-Tánczos | Technician: István Zoltán Bodor

The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world “picturesque.” ( Susan Sontag, 1977)

On the opposite side, the other end, the great beyond – there are several interpretations of this other side in the title, of which the photographs showcased at the exhibition relate. The images have been taken recently at different locations of Budapest, the Hungarian capital bisected by the Danube: they present details of the streets and buildings both in Buda and Pest, yet they cannot be considered to be documentary street photography, as they point beyond the simple visual reproductions of the visible world. The authors added that so indefinable extra content, which helps to reveal the spirit of the place as well, using various methods, their photographic toolset, composition skills and sensitivity. No doubt: photography is one of the best media for conveying the genius loci, that is, and in our case, the spirit radiating from these locations in Buda and Pest. The long history of the camera has seen several occasions, when people tried to use this tool for presenting invisible phenomena, with more or less success, and debatable objectives. Spiritualists for example, who believe in psychomancy, have been trying to prove the existence of supernatural phenomena – and to authenticate the sittings for the participants – via photographic processes believed to be suitable for objectively representing the sight. Although the photographs exhibited at Hello from the Other Side were not taken with such an intention of verification, they are suitable for presenting an alternative city image besides the everyday one, through the basic characteristics of the photograph used for documentary purposes both in the acknowledged and the occult sciences. Via depicting unusual phenomena and conjunctions, and capturing unsettling light conditions, the mysterious spaces and atmosphere of a Budapest not visible for the naked eye is delineated.

Máté Bartha: untitled object (2017)

Artists of the exhibition:

Máté Bartha, Szabolcs Barakonyi, Krisztina Erdei, Zsolt Ficsór, Attila Kozó, Gábor Arion Kudász, Zsuzsanna Kemenesi, Lenke Szilágyi, Éva Szombat, Sára Erzsébet Timár, Miklós Gulyás