Violetta VIGH: MUNKA/VERSENY
Opening: 27 February 2024, 6 PM
The exhibition will be opened by Zsolt K. Horváth, historian, and associate professor, METU Faculty of Art and Creative Industries
‘Mihály Hurai is the eternal fregoli. They always put him where he is most needed. […] This man is incapable of doing a bad job’.
(Ruházati Munkás, 1968, Volume 12, Issue 2)
Schedule
In her solo exhibition, Vigh Violetta, a graduate student of the Media Design MA at MOME, examines the linguistic and visual representations of chasing productivity. Her main sources of inspiration are archive articles and news recordings about the working conditions of Hungarian socialist clothing factory workers, which reveal a world of scoreboards, percentages, disciplined bodies, and competition at the highest level.
Socialist emulations had outstanding importance in the socialist economy, during which workers typically aimed to increase performance by setting unrealistic, practically unattainable goals, surpassing the centrally determined norm by several hundred or thousand percent. Today, after the Stakhanovite movement, not the socialist emulations but the principle of unlimited possibilities and progress dictates the pace and generates competitive situations.
How important is competition in our lives, and how does it shape our identity? Where is the line between healthy and unhealthy competition? What are the parallels between work and competitive sports? Is there such a thing as individual performance?
In the exhibition ‘MUNKA/VERSENY’ (WORK/COMPETITION), the phrases and visual symbols of the examined era transform into absurd metaphors of contemporary achievement society in the form of objects and video installation.
Curator: Noémi VISKI
Assistant Curator: Júlia BÁLINT
Special thanks to: Dániel CSEH, Miklós ERHARDT, László HALÁK, Attila PÁLFALUSI, János SZIRTES, József TASNÁDI
The exhibition is open until 21 March.
Opening hours:
Tuesday 10-6 PM
Wednesday 3.30-7 PM
Thursday 12-6 PM
K11 Labor
K11 Labor, established in January 2022 as part of the K11 Arts and Cultural Centre, is an inclusive space that aims to bring contemporary art and design closer to the city's audience through thematic exhibitions and other programmes."
