The focus of ARTplacc Contemporary Art Festival is on the freshest tendencies of contemporary visual art. The Central Exhibition Tent (CET) accommodates the art fair and exhibition of Hungarian and international art galleries from the CEE region. The picturesque Tihany Peninsula gives place to summer editions of diverse art initiative and independent art projects.
This year, we put special emphasis on art mediation: frequent guided tours, art pedagogy programmes, talks and discussions areaiming to bring contemporary art closer for a broad audience.
ARTplacc’s future aim is to become a marketplace of Central and Eastern European Contemporary Art, but also an art fair with a friendly summer atmosphere, where visitors have the opportunity to gain insights into the practices of art universities from the CEE region and to network with other galleries and collectors.
Video art will be back at ARTplacc this year! Crosstalk Video Art Festival and Panel Contemporary are our professional partners bringing curated video selections for the festival. Each year, Crosstalk aims to select from and draw upon the dynamic and shifting nature of video art. The vocabulary of video art as a means of artistic expression and experimentation has no easily fixed boundaries and draws upon various media, cultural dynamics and technologies; has antecedents in experimental cinema and reflects the various forms and genres of popular culture; it has no standard vocabulary nor singular defining elements as a form of artistic expression nor as a means of representation and experimentation. The mission of Panel Contemporary is to enhance the visibility of artistic techniques and practices that mostly raised their heads in the 20th century art – photography, kinetic art, multimedia, installation, performance and action art.
Photography is present at ARTplacc from its first year as we involve galleries that are consciously working with photography. The medium of photography is getting more and more attention among the general public as well due to the growing number of exhibitions dealing with the specificities of the art of light. The youngest generation with its fresh vibes catches up with the old masters and the all time legendary Hungarian photography soon reaches its quondam international glory.
The Hungarian House of Photography in Mai Manó House being one of the most important initiatives dealing with photography plays a great role in the propagation of the medium by maintaining a high quality exhibition programme. In 2013 Mai Manó House participates at ARTplacc with a group exhibition curated for the festival.
We believe in the permeability of artistic media and genres therefore performing art acts are frequently popping up in the festival programme. Last year it was the Grund Theatre that held a workshop based on improvisation followed by an interactive performance questioning the often static relations of the performers and the viewers. The buzz of this years’ performing arts selection of the festival is the re-thinking of the dynamics between visual art and theatre.
The key motif of this year’s theatrical programmes is the reconstruction of the relationship between theatre and the visual arts.
Every evening ends up at KikötőPlacc where artists, galerists and the broad audience enjoy the laid-back summer atmosphere sipping lemonades and cocktails directly on the shore of Balaton with all the beautiful lights of the lake behind.
When the night arrives we can watch international short and feature length films in the cosy “lounge cinema” right from the shore looking at the canvas installed in the lake. The selection of the films were based on their degree of visuality. EUshorts, latest French and Italian films will be screened.
Land art is an art movement in which the landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked using the terrain, rocks, plants etc. for creating monumental outdoor installations. In Tihany we are looking for further expressions of the organic unit of nature, landscape and the built environment. The iconic work of art of the current edition of ARTplacc is going to be Endre Koronczi’s installation titled Plobouter Park. The author makes the plastic bags designed to be decomposed to become eternal works of art. From the sacred space of Kiscelli Museum, Budapest the installation will be relocated on the water of Balaton hence the its innate meditative character will be given a new context.
We present a wide range of arts including urban art, which will be challenging not only for the artist who feel comfortable in the urban tissue of Budapest but also the genre itself as here as opposed to its usual form has to show their best in the village of Tihany …even if it is of an urbanised character.