Igor & Ivan Buharov: today I still don't understand it all
acb plus
8 May - 13 June 2025.
Opening: 8 May 2025 (Thursday) 18:00 - 21:00
The title of the latest solo exhibition by Igor and Ivan Buharov, i.e. Kornél Szilágyi and Nándor Hevesi, on show at acb Plus, is a quote from Ottó Tolnai's poem of the same title, which, in the light of the artists' position as a pair of artists, which has matured over thirty years, suggests a self-deprecating and self-critical attitude. In this, the need to take up the space between understanding and not understanding is expressed, which at the same time outlines an anarchistic, anti-metodic artistic practice. The conscious pushing of the boundaries of interpretation is not only the driving force behind their creative method, but also its result: a process that constantly questions traditional expectations and rejects the narrow confines of genre classification.
Schedule
For thirty years, the Buharov brothers have been following their own path along the radical avant-garde and neo-avant-garde traditions, with close links to Eastern European Dadaist, Surrealist and anarchist artistic trends. Their work is characterised by a conscious departure from genre constraints, often employing playful means of absurdity, deconstruction and subversion. Their artistic stance is at once an attempt to interpret the world and a constant rethinking of form, process and meaning. The act and medium of creation itself - be it feature film, experimental cinema, video, painting, printmaking, installation or performance - is for them a medium for radical questioning of artistic conventions and cultural norms.
The jubilee exhibition at acb Plus is a celebration not only of the artistic language of the Buharovs, but also of the absurdist philosophy that has consistently characterised their work. The exhibition offers a selection of the pair's seminal earlier works, as well as their most recent creations, including lightboxes, paintings, prints, deconstructed furniture and videos. Together, the works on display thus draw out the concept of "Buharovism" - a conceptual and performative framework that is in constant flux, never static, and constantly questioning its own principles, as it is never faithful to a fixed foundation, in the spirit of Lajos Kassák, but always to the performative-nomadic gesture of its foundation.
The exhibition is planned to be accompanied by a number of events. Through a variety of guided tours, performances and retrospective screenings, the artists will redefine the boundaries between art and audience, artist and recipient. Taking place not only within the walls of the acb Gallery but beyond, the anniversary will not only be a nostalgic celebration of 30 years of Buharovism, but also a living demonstration of how the duo are challenging the artistic status quo in the present. In the spirit of the motto "I don't understand it all today", the exhibition is an invitation to immerse oneself in the absurdity and complexity of Buharovism - a celebration of the unknown, the unclassifiable and the creative power of creative chaos, the values that define the artist couple's entire oeuvre.
Igor & Ivan Buharov Spiritual Civil Disobedience, 2019, Photo by Tibor Varga-Somogyi
acb Gallery
Founded in Budapest in 2003, acb Gallery has consistently grown in the past two decades establishing itself as one of the leading actors in the Hungarian and Eastern European art market. Initially, the gallery’s focus was on Hungarian and international emerging and mid-generation neo-conceptual artists, who became active after the political changes in the former Eastern Bloc in 1990. Since then, the gallery has expanded its focus, and now represents numerous Hungarian neo-avant-garde artists who have left their mark on art history since the 1960s and 1970s, as well as members of the youngest generations beside the already established ones. Since the autumn of 2022, acb runs three exhibition spaces: the main gallery space, acb Attachment, which serves as a project space, and acb Plus, dedicated to large-scale solo and group presentations. acb’s research and publishing department, acb ResearchLab was founded in 2015. This platform within the gallery aims to fill the gaps in the reception and publication of Hungarian neo-avant-garde and post-avant-garde oeuvres by studying bodies of works and art phenomena previously treated as peripheral. The gallery holds significant importance within the global art market, actively promoting its artists nationally as well as internationally and engaging in art fairs, such as the Art Basel in Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, the Frieze Masters London or the ARCO Madrid.