ACAX – Agency for Contemporary Art Exchange 
13.5.2020, 17:00, zoom
Budapest, Hungary
Participants: Szilva Bolla, Orsi, Barnabas Bencsik,
Gergely Nagy, Szabolcs Tunde

The training session attempted to reflect upon the elasticity and potentialities of placement/displacement and mobility/immobility of artists within different contexts. By looking at examples such as the School of Panamerican Unrest, Artists  at Risk (AIR), CarryOn Homes and Immigrant movement international in which artists responded to issues of migration by establishing some sort of learning structure. The workshops aimed to discuss and understand the ways in which an art institution can shape its structure and support for the artists in order to involve underrepresented members of the community. By analyzing particular positions and possibilities of ACAX, the participants were invited to critically approach obstacles and possibilities for such experimental educational practices.

The practical part of the workshop consisted of the following questions:

How do artists help in creation of solidarity networks?

What role does an art institution have in that process?    
How it situates itself within art as well as within broader social and political context?      

How can art institution shape its structure and support for the artists in order to involve underrepresented members of the community?

The participants were expected to bring answers to the questions by selecting some of the words that were used as a point of further discussion: EMPATHY, LANGUAGE, UNIVERSITY/ACADEMY/SCHOOL, HOME, HOSPITALITY, ARTIVISM, AUDIENCE, HUMAN RIGHTS, EMPOWERING, POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT, INTERVENTION IN SOCIAL/POLITICAL REALITY, COLLABORATION WITH NGO’S DEDICATED TO THE RIGHTS OF MINORITY, ETHICS, CARE, INTEGRATION, MEETING PLACE, DISCRIMINATION, RACISM, CRITICAL PEDAGOGY, EXPERIENTAL KNOWLEDGE, TRANSFORMATION OF INSTITUTION, TEMPORARINESS OF ART FORMS, FRAGMENTED ART PROJECT, COMMUNITY ART PROJECT, ACCES TO KNOWLEDGE, TRANSLATION, CONVERSATION, ART RESIDENCY.

At the beginning of the discussion the participants emphasized that the current situation in Hungary makes the artist community as minority. Especially contemporary visual artists. The reason for this perspective lies in denial of freedom of speech as well as in other obstacles such as funding, organization etc. In that sense it is very difficult to create a solidarity networks there are no financial, emotional or structural resources to do this. Solidarity, it seems, disappeared from the society. The participants gave few examples of art projects that were focused on collaboration with migrants and were represented within public space. They mentioned a project Our new neighbors and an exhibition Talking objects that consisted of photographs of different objects that were belonging to a person with migrant background. Underneath each object was a particular story of its owner, and the photographs were exhibited at places that are usually not exhibiting spaces, for example hairdresser salon or bakery. However, the participants of the workshop also had experiences with censorship that came from racist politics of the current government. Then the discussion took turn to the current state of censorship of art expression, but also the censorship of freedom of speech. In the current conditions caused by the pandemic the borders are closed, opportunities are limited, lock-down policies remain in Budapest and it appears as infinite time. Physical space is unavailable, everything moved online at the moment, and artists are trying to cope with this. As everything is so fragmented and there is no possibility for concrete protest, there was no pressure on the government to support artists in this critical condition. Even more so, the National Cultural Fund that is funded by lottery, didn’t come with any kind of plan for help for the artists. The biggest problem remains how to collaborate, how to create a space of exchange when everybody is isolated and so many actions can be considered illegal. Municipalities that were supporting of the cultural scene are now losing power and resources and it is very difficult to act in a meaningful way.