Transitland is a collaborative archiving project which has produced a selection of 100 single-channel video works made in 1989-2009 that reflect the transformations in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe.
"Transitland is not only the widest-spanning presentation of video art from Central and Eastern Europe but also a unique attempt to address and reflect upon an extensive period of transformation and changes," according to the project's organiers. "Besides the numerous discursive and documentary attempts to describe, analyze and contextualize transition, we do believe that multitude viewpoints and aspects, presented through the media of video art, will provide a unique understanding of aesthetic and critical positions to the current discourse on the transition period."
The exhibition includes a lyrical remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall by Egon Bunne, a record of the changes as seen from a housing estate window over 20 years by József Robakowski and a piece by Szabolcs Kisspál showing the sudden emergence of nationalism in the former East Bloc.
The exhibition at LUMU was overseen by the Hungarian art historian and art critic Edit András, who was a member of the international jury that selected the pieces for Transitland. András also edited a reader with essays that offer an in-depth commentary on the topics present in the archive.
Author: Eszter Götz
