Memory Traces Sewn into Textile

Dominika Lazorová, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Katarína Rusnáková At the turn of October and November 2024, Station Gallery in Bratislava hosted an exhibition of the latest works by Emőke Vargová, entitled Nobody and Nothing, curated by Lucia G. Stach.[1]In the intimate setting of the gallery, conducive to a more […]

Restless Dislocations as a Postapocalyptic Fiction

Izabela Vydrnáková, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Jana Geržová The exhibition Restless Dislocations in the former synagogue, now serving as a Centre for Contemporary Art, presents a joint artistic project by Radovan Čerevka (1980) and Adrian Kiss (1990).[1] Through the creation of a site-specific installation, the artists radically transform the […]

The New Spirituality? The Gallery as a Place of Contemplation

Martina Mrázová, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Ján Kralovič Entering a temple may be an act of recognition, initiation, or simply an aesthetic experience. The same applies to entering a gallery. In the case of the exhibition Ora et Labora at the Regional Gallery in Prešov, these two experiences intertwine. […]

Beautiful Dream. On Tears of Joy at Zachęta

Jakub Wydra, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Dorota Jarecka, Katarzyna Kołodziej-Podsiadło and Karolina Plinta Since Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw was wrested from the controversial directorship of Janusz Janowski, this was the first time the general public had been invited to such a comprehensive exhibition.[1] Unlike the […]

The Swelling Must First Go Down. Tears of Joy at Zachęta – National Art Gallery

Lidia Tańska, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Dorota Jarecka, Katarzyna Kołodziej-Podsiadło and Karolina Plinta I belong to one of the first generations not to look to the future with hope. The future is no longer flying Ferraris, but rather burning forests and melting glaciers. When we talk about tomorrow, we […]

Important and Most Important. About Tears of Joy

Mariia Varlygina, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Dorota Jarecka, Katarzyna Kołodziej-Podsiadło and Karolina Plinta Shedding tears of joy is an extraordinarily intense experience. I find myself thinking that, aside from personal memories, I most often associate it with images of athletes whose faces, magnified on screen, reveal the joy of […]

The System’s Dark Materials

Gyöngyvirág Agócs, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Vanda Sárai Can a system whose raw materials and operations are based on exploitation be ethical? Who is responsible when the consequences of every human decision extend beyond those who make them? While these questions are rarely posed in tandem, the exhibition entitled […]

F.A.Q. This – Supporting Materials for the Crisis of Art Mediation – On the Occasion of the Ludwig Museum’s Exhibition Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.)

Ferenc Domokos, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Patrick Tayler Alongside our self-awareness, imagination, and opposable thumbs, asking questions is one of those seemingly banal abilities that makes humanity unique.[1] It may be appropriate to approach art, another unique achievement of our species, by asking questions. Being there on the closing […]

Shouting Through the Noise of the Exhibition-Production Machine

Sára Tomcsányi, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

Mentored by Attila Horányi The horizontal spreading of transparent alkali flowers conquering the terrain, song of the fire-bellied toad. The monumentality of Norwegian fjords, plastic bags floating ghostlike above the water. Bringing nature into the exhibition space, talking about ecological problems – what are the […]

Young Art Critic Mentorship Program: A Collaboration between AICA Hungary, AICA Slovakia and AICA Poland

Kata Balázs – Arkadiusz Półtorak, Oct, 2025Oct, 2025

The year-long mentoring program jointly developed by the Hungarian, Polish and Slovak sections of AICA is a collaborative initiative aimed at supporting emerging critics at the beginning of their professional paths, and is planned to become an annual tradition among the respected regional AICA sections. […]

Harvests of Hope. Working with the Land and Artistic Ecological Responsibility beyond Representation

Raluca Voinea, Sep, 2025

Full moon, red. Cracks in the soil, the size of crevasses. Patching the land, maintenance that takes much more struggle than building. Plants that made the effort of surviving sequences of frost, that generated new leaves, new sprouts, a new generation of themselves, better adapted […]

A Weird New World
New (Vital) Materialism and Weird (Dark) Ecology in Hungarian Contemporary Art

Sándor Hornyik, Sep, 2025Sep, 2025

In the twenty-first century, in the Capitaloceneera, Lovecraftian weird epistemology is witnessing a renaissance, not only in popular culture, but also in philosophy and aesthetics.[1] The ancient, alien and seemingly irrational gods of Howard Philips Lovecraft’s world appear in streaming (TV)series such as True Detective, […]

Deep Fictionality as a Mechanism of Memetic Manipulation and Artistic Subversion

Zuzana Husárová–Karel Piorecký, Aug, 2025Aug, 2025

From Dreams to Hallucinations, from Research to Corporations Since the advent of the new AI Spring, the cultural sphere has undergone radical transformations, prompting a reevaluation of the potential disruptions neural networks (a term we prefer over the more widely used, ambiguously defined, and frequently […]

Theoretical Reflections on Revolt and Artistic Resistance of Contemporary Visual Art in Georgia

Mariam Shergelashvili, Aug, 2025Aug, 2025

Instead of an introduction: when the world goes mad, what can art do? How can we analyze artistic practices of performative and institutional critique in contemporary Georgia through the theoretical framework of revolt? This question has become increasingly urgent, as reflections on art are shaped […]

No to Canon—Yes to Cannon: Engaged, Political Art from Post-Communist Europe

Magdalena Radomska, Aug, 2025Aug, 2025

One of the founders of the LEF group, active in Odessa and Moscow since 1922, Boris Arvatov undertook to define proletarian art. In his 1922 text Proletariat and Left-Wing Art, he wrote: “Proletarian art, which has not even been heard of yet, is possible only […]

Art in a Suspended World

Edit András - Hedvig Turai, Aug, 2025Aug, 2025

Introduction of the Editors The world we once knew, structured by modern institutions and ideals, has changed dramatically and is now upside down: we now inhabit a landscape of profound uncertainty. A long process of modern history and the post-World War II order have been […]

World-famous Starchitects, National Excellence. One reading of the 10-Year-Old Liget Project

Boglárka Kőrösi, May, 2024May, 2024

The Liget Project was initiated as part of a grandiose cultural real estate investment, with the goal of constructing a cultural quarter in Budapest's City Park, one of the oldest public parks in Europe. This article examines the narrative that the government has built around the development to make it acceptable to the people of the city.

Between Memory Culture and Cancel Culture: (Self-)Censorship and Political Intervention in Germany’s Cultural Landscape

Emily Finkelstein, May, 2024May, 2024

The cultural scene in Germany has been on fire for six months. The still-smoldering aftermath of documenta 15 has been reignited in the face of the current turmoil in Israel and Palestine, leading to cancellations, boycotts, defunding and high-profile resignations across the country’s cultural institutions. The blurring lines between art institutions and state politics has called into question the future of Germany’s position as a central node in the art world and a supporter of culture across the globe.