Red Tail and Blue Pencil – Case Studies of Censorship, with Some Contemporary Reflections

May 3–16, 2015

If you don’t know what the red tail or the blue pencil symbols in the title refer to, it is time you immerse yourself in the world of artworks banned during the 1960s and 1970s in Hungary due to cultural political considerations. By examining concrete cases of censorship through contemporaneous, obscure archival documents, the exhibition provides insight into the history of a progressive artistic group, the Studio of Young Artists’ Association (SYAA), which has remained active to the present day. Furthermore, it provides a kaleidoscope – like cross section of works by artists who were regarded as dangerous. Reading the “blue – penciled” jury report books of the annual Studio exhibitions, one has many Aha! moments, not least of all because more than once the general public comes across works of art that a few decades ago were censored, but today are found in public art institutions. Symptomatically, the exhibition has been organized outside of the official institutional network, more specifically in an apartment, lest the ominous practice of banning exhibitions perchance reawaken.

Alongside the documents selected and presented in an installation format, contemporary reflections will summon the mechanisms of the censorship of the now by gone era. Two of the three artist pairs invited to participate conjure specific events from the history of the Studio: one of them uses an intercultural meditative exercise to elaborate on the griefs experienced by artists in connection withthe 1967 exhibition. The other evokes the censorial gesture with respect to the 1978 exhibition in a remake format. The third artist pair examines the institution of censorship on a more general level through the power practices of the 1970s.

Exhibiting artist: Lőrinc Borsos, János Brückner – Miloš Toth, Laci&Balázs

Curators: Mónika Zsikla, Mónika Zombori

Venue: Studio flat of Little Warsaw (1134 Budapest, Bulcsú u. 20. VI./19.)

Special thanks: Zsuzsanna Szegedy-Maszák (translation), Balázs Máté/flashbackstudio (photo), Katalin Spengler (special attention)

Related events

Objective censorship performance by Tamás Seregi and Márió Nemes Z., May 3, 2015

Mediation talk at Red Tail and Blue Pencil – Case Studies of Censorship, with Some Contemporary Reflections, May 12, 2015

Subjective memory? A conversation with the neo-avant-garde artists of the 1960s in connection with the exhibition RED TAIL and BLUE PENCIL, May 26, 2015

Participants: Ilona Keserü, Imre Bak, János Fajó

Moderator: József Mélyi, art historian

Venue: Stúdió Galéria (1077, Rottenbiller u. 35.)