Collegium Hungaricum Inaugurates Art Gallery

English

Visitors at the opening of the exhibition entered the Collegium Hungaricum's fine and unusual building to find a well-dressed man sitting in a big armchair and reading a book in front of a huge window at street level.

 
"Where are the paintings?" someone whispers.
 
Then everyone becomes quiet as the man in the chair is illuminated by a spotlight. His voice is heard from a microphone - he is reading from the Bible, in German.
 

The visitors see through the window a van approaching the building. It draws closer and its headlights are blinding. Just before it drives through the window, the van stops and the two artists, Gerhes and Roskó, jump out muttering in Hungarian through microphones they are wearing.

 
Opening remarks are made, and the visitors make their way to the next level of the building to see the exhibition.
 

They find Roskó's half-man, half-animal creations, but not on paper, rather made of porcelain. The figures stand facing each other in a square in the centre of the room. The visitors slip between them to see their faces.

 
Gerhes's work can be seen on the walls: human figures sketched with simple lines and wrapped in blue-trimmed plastic clouds.  
 
The curator of the exhibition is Vera Baksa-Soós, an art historian who taught in Germany for many years before becoming a curator at Budapest's Ludwig Museum.
 
Author: Ildikó Lőkös