We are looking for an enthusiastic intern! – The invisible structures of the internship system in contemporary art
The exhibition features a selection of works by international artists who have themselves worked – in some cases as interns – at art institutions, and whose critical attitudes and personal practices offer subversive observations and proposals regarding internship work. The exhibition also aims to map and question the contradictions that reproduce similar modes of operation in the various aspects and roles of artistic work, whether from the perspective of artists or those engaged with art theoretically.
Schedule
Internships are a defining yet one of the least discussed and most overlooked positions within the contemporary art institutional system. It is an unavoidable entry threshold that simultaneously reproduces hierarchy, professional uncertainty, and the compulsion of internal loyalty. The starting point of the We are looking for an enthusiastic intern! project is the paradox that internships are both a prerequisite for and an obstacle to genuine professional integration, as well as the realization that a significant portion of those entering the art world are trying to make their mark in a system where critiquing it risks their own future.
Who are the interns, and where can they find work in the Hungarian art scene today? The professional research associated with the exhibition explores the extent to which advertised internship positions in the domestic context fulfill their professional or financial promises, what mechanisms sustain this often invisible model, how professional and transgenerational patterns are perpetuated, and what alternatives are conceivable in an art scene whose current functioning seems natural, even inevitable.
The project is based on a questionnaire that collects and presents, in a structured and anonymous manner, the experiences of those currently or previously active as interns in the Hungarian art scene. The analysis of this data will be published in the May-June issue of index-link, which – including the interns’ experiences – will be symbolically returned to many of the venues where the work took place: they will be available in galleries, museums, and cultural institutions.
The project is also linked to the publication We Are Looking for Enthusiastic Interns!, which explores academic approaches to the topic, going beyond historical perspectives on internships to address concepts such as exploitation, class-based access, and cultural public work, as well as the role of alternative, non-hierarchical initiatives and the responsibility of universities.
The exhibition features a selection of works by international artists who have themselves worked – in some cases as interns – at art institutions, and whose critical attitudes and personal practices offer subversive observations and proposals regarding internship work. The exhibition also aims to map and question the contradictions that reproduce similar modes of operation in the various aspects and roles of artistic work, whether from the perspective of artists or those engaged with art theoretically.
Exhibiting artists: Apparatus 22 (RO/BE/Suprainfinit utopian realm), Máté Dobokay, Gleb Burnashev (BY/PL), Klaudia Januskó, Nóra Juhász, Luca Florian (RO), Attila Menesi, Réka Miranda Rojas-Nagy, Fruzsina Siklódy, Anna Setényi, Ádám Széll
Authors of the publication We Are Looking for an Enthusiastic Intern!:
Zsolt K. Horváth, Dóra Kolocz, János Szoboszlai, Eszter Őze, Zoltán Visnyai
Appendix – Intern Manifesto: RUT Collective (Petra Dolicsek, Borbála Szakos)
Illustration: Márton Dés
Graphic design: Janka Baradits
Curators: András Nagy, Ferenc Domokos, Míra Mónika Magyar, Sára Tomcsányi
Opening: June 5, 2026, 7:00 PM, art quarter budapest
Following the curatorial team’s welcome remarks, there will be a performance by Apparatus 22 and Réka Miranda Rojas-Nagy, after which the event will conclude with a guided tour.
The exhibition is on view at art quarter budapest Project Space, June 5–July 3, 2026, Wednesday to Friday 3:00-6:00 PM, and Saturdays 1:00-5:00 PM
Supervisor: Tamás Don
Supporters: FALU Collective, Index-link, MKE Student Council, MKE Department of Fine Arts Theory, National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Romanian Cultural Institute
This project is the thesis project of graduating students of the MA program in Contemporary Art Theory and Curatorial Studies at the Fine Art Theory Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.
The exhibition is supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary.