http://www.jerusalembiennale.org/585000-m2/
585,000 m2 examines the symbolic spaces and the inscriptions of history — from the pre-World War 2 period to the present —found in the Jewish Quarter of the 7th district in Budapest, through visual art statements. The title is a reference to the surface area of the Quarter, a dense urban neighborhood overflowing with signifiers akin to the number the exhibition title suggests.
The curators invited nine young Hungarian artists to reflect upon select buildings aiming to research and relate the stories within and behind them. The artists were to use mainly visual media to mediate between past and present, history and art, artist and society, tackling the complexities that mark the urban spaces of the 7th district. The diversity of the Quarter is mirrored in the variegated techniques and approaches used by the participating artists. Mixing archival and contemporary constructs alongside individual video installations, the exhibition invites the audience to step into the Quarter to experience and get acquainted with its bustling religious and cultural life, as well as with the artists’ transformative vision of this complex moment in time. At the same time, the artists also document the radical interventions to which this Quarter was subjected to by the perpetrators of the Shoah, leaving an indelible mark on private and public spaces alike. Each installation provides a unique and idiosyncratic portrait of these spaces across time, while offering an interpretation of, and contribution to, the ongoing process of mastering history and reclaiming the present: the acceptance and adoption of the past by a new generation.
Participating artists: Zsuzsi Flohr, Zsófia Szemző, Márton Szirmai, Dániel Halász, István Illés, Levente Csordás in collaboration with Airplan X Kickass Factory, Balázs Varjú Tóth, Mátyás Csiszár, Milán Kopasz along with Csaba Kalotás (music) and Éva Szombat (photography).
Curated by Andrea Ausztrics, historian and media artist and Zita Mara Vadász, curator
