Kultur und Freizeit, Venice Biennale

The project Kultur und Freizeit consists of a series of single channel videos, all showing the current state of cultural centres in contemporary Budapest, projected in separate black boxes which both physically and structurally include the spectators. At first these black boxes seem to be minimalist sculptural objects. Yet, as we move through them, their structure is revealed and they look as much like sophisticated micro-cinemas as simple wooden props.

The short videos are not straightforward documentaries, as they don’t aim to provide the visitors with a comprehensive, anthropological survey of the current situation of these buildings. Rather, they function as signifiers for a contemporary separation between mass culture and popular cultures, and their respective institutional frameworks, as opposed to high culture and its locations. This is emphasised by the particular use of camera movement, the subjective points of view and the atmospheric quality of the images that rely on the narrative qualities of the architecture itself.

In Hungary, the phenomenon and the proliferation of cultural centres belong to a past political era, in which one of the state’s fundamental missions was the democratization of culture. The origins of this endeavour date back not only
to André Malraux and French cultural policy of the 1950s, but also to the 19th- century tradition of the workers’ club.
In this respect, Fogarasi’s project has a geographic and political relevance that goes well beyond the Hungarian capital.

Katalin Timár