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 possibilities, and above all, what is at stake? In my critique, I examine two recent Hungarian exhibitions on the theme of ecology: Learning from Nature – Botany, held at the leading public contemporary art institution in Debrecen, MODEM Debrecen, and Habitat, held at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of artworks exploring issues surrounding the ecological crisis – this is a general trend. But how can this discourse be realised well? The aforementioned exhibitions offer two possible takes, which I will examine by focusing my critique on the employed curatorial concepts and approaches. While there is nothing new about discussing ecological issues in museum spaces, this phenomenon may have truly arrived in Hungary only recently: at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, within a few months, two of the largest Hungarian institutions held exhibitions exploring this theme. There have been similar initiatives by smaller galleries,[1] but this is the first time we can talk about exhibitions that provide a general introduction featuring international artists, while also aiming to highlight local issues.
There were two very different starting points: the framework for the earlier Botany exhibition consisted of the International Artists’ Colony of Debrecen (DNM) in 2024, which focused on the broadly interpreted science of botany. Debrecen and the history of Hungarian botany are closely intertwined: from a cultural-historical perspective, Péter Méliusz Juhász’s Herbarium (1578), along with Sámuel Diószegi and Mihály Fazekas’s Hungarian Book of Botany (1807), are regarded as seminal works. In keeping with this tradition, during their two-week stay, participants of the artist colony visited – the catalogue informs us[2] – such emblematic sites as the Museum of the Reformed College, the Botanical Garden of the University of Debrecen, and Hortobágy National Park – places that are also reflected in the motifs of the artworks. Eszter Júlia Kuzma’s work entitled Touch of Innocence was inspired by a communion tablecloth (Katalin Széchy’s betrothal kerchief) found in the Collection of the Reformed College; Daniel Godínez Nivón’s video installation The Night Will Come is based on the tragic love story between the maguey (agave) plant found at the Botanical Garden and the magueyero bat; Katalin Kortmann-Járay and Karina Mendreczky’s work entitled Mirage invokes the world of mirages in the Hortobágy National Park of the Great Hungarian Plain; Nóra Szabó’s Salt-Step Ledges: On The Edge of Two Worlds was inspired by the mosaic salt structures and native plants of the Great Hungarian Plain.
The primary paradox of ecologically themed art shows has to do with how the displayed artworks have been produced, as well as with the energy consumption of the exhibition space (while keeping in mind that the consumption during the entire length of an exhibition is incomparable to, for example, the environmental pollution caused by the military industry in a single day).[3] While the artist colony used contemporary works of art as its starting point and aimed to create new pieces, Habitat was created from the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery, with a selection that enters into dialogue with contemporary works dating from the second half of the 19th century. In connection to the Museum of Fine Arts’ show entitled Systems of Logic / The Logic of Systems: The Art and Mind of Agnes Denes, the exhibition places in broader context the problematic of redefining the relationship between nature and culture in light of the perceptions of nature and the landscape in previous centuries and the current ecological perspective (…).”[4] There was no real redefinition, as the director of the institution emphasized[5] that the exhibition would not take a position or create hierarchical relationships between various points of view, thus making them timeless. The question and responsibility of rendering current this fundamentally conservative concept also arises, which provides something of a foundation for the topic. There are almost no eco-critical trends appearing in the exhibition; the long-awaited embodiment of ecological interest (which has been gaining impetus since the 1970s) in the form of an art exhibition gives one a feeling of “finally!” The exhibition openly takes the position of seeking a perspective on what feels like an overdiscussed topic in many respects in order to make a contribution to the discourse. This involves tracing the historical arc, as well as embedding in art history – and canonising – the coexistence of humans and the landscape based on representation in works of art. It marks the beginning of this process at the time of the industrial revolutions and the emergence of large-scale industrial production, starting with Romanticism through the majestic concept of the philosophical-aesthetic (e.g. Tibor Iski Kocsis’s landscape entitled Here and There, Hommage á Caspar David (triptych) or the monumentality of Adelsteen Normann’s Nærøy-fjord in Norway). The exhibition accomplishes this by rethinking and exploring the ritualistic nature of contemporary artworks (Gideon Horváth’s The Spirits Speak with His Mouth: Ritual for Equilibrium), as well as its anthropomorphic character (Kata Tranker: Humans with Their Creator) and its technological tools, including video games (András Cséfalvay: Trilobites – The Valley of Death). In contrast, the concept of Botany seemed broad and trivial at first glance, but its promise of exploring the possibilities of learning from nature is manifested in a multifaceted and unique way through the artworks, which resist the danger of becoming mere illustrations. I would highlight Zsófia Illés’s installation Wild Water Country, which deals with the floodplains of the Tisza River and the critical situation of floodplain farmers, raising new perspectives in a complex and sensitive manner. The work consists of a film, a textile installation, and a set of furniture made of false indigo bush, which is one of the main causes of flooding because it prevents water from draining away.
Given the magnitude of the theme, both exhibitions divide the showcased material into sections. At the MODEM, without using any numbering, the layout of the space suggests a kind of cumulative unfolding of three sections (Ecological Booths, Anthropocene Landscapes, Feral Districts; Shifts in Natural Symbolism; Speculative Organisms and Eco-Narratives). At the Hungarian National Gallery, on the other hand, the space is divided into six sections (The Majestic Landscape, Appropriated Nature, Constructed Landscape, Landscape Experiments, Before Expulsion, After Expulsion, The Perspective of Those Living in the Landscape). In the latter case, one feels freer in moving between the sections, even despite the chronology, which at the same time helps with orientation. At the National Gallery, Ádám Albert’s rethinking and sympathetic reuse of elements from a previous exhibition resulted in a labyrinthine space, forming a transparent partition in the middle of the exhibition hall without using the walls. The elements – rendered semi-transparent by the plexiglass and the wooden beams cut in a tableau-like fashion – sometimes reveal the other side of the artworks. While, for example, in Dominika Trapp’s work entitled Entangled, Engaged, Entrapped I-II, the paper used as support adds another layer of meaning, in Gustave Courbet’s The Spring of Léri in Chassagne, the canvas does not add anything to the artwork; rather, it is the anachronism of the plastic that becomes striking. At the same time, transparency allows for exciting mental associations, while, in the case of Botany, the space was less conducive to the joy of simultaneous viewing.
The material showcased by the Hungarian National Gallery is extensive, providing basic information and logically constructing an evolution of the modes of coexistence. At the same time, for informational purposes, it could have offered a more direct presentation of trends that are essential for the interpretation of contemporary works from the perspective of ecocriticism (such as deep ecology, degrowth, voluntary simplicity, eco- and hydrofeminism, plant and animal ethics, extractivism – with the latter possibly appearing alongside Rita Süveges’s Black Gold, while degrowth could have been featured alongside Tamás Kaszás’s Escapist Story [Forest School]). I found this lacking in the catalog,[6] which only included the wall texts according to sectional divisions, with no other essays apart from the introduction. As a result, we know very little about many of the works, such as András Böröcz’s branch-sculpture Demeter or Noémi Ferenczy’s carpet design entitled Women Gardeners, not to mention the actual process through which the contemporary pieces were selected. In contrast, the catalog of Botany is a nuanced publication with interviews and essays that counterbalance the exhibition’s transience and limited depth. Important trends that are on the verge of being articulated could have been included in Habitat as well. The lack of intellectual work in this respect further reinforces the feeling that no thought was given to how the exhibition should position itself in the discursive space of ecocriticism: thus, only trend-like approaches remain. While we are offered an overview that is indeed beautiful and interesting from an art-historical perspective, in disregarding these aspects, it is unclear what is at stake and why works from a few years ago were requested from contemporary artists beyond their current relevance.
The centuries-old role of museums needs to be transformed in many respects, traces of which are apparent in the role and implementation of the two exhibitions: “the question is: how can we slow down the program” and “how right is it (…) to always be racing forward in preparation for the next exhibition?”[7] The noise of the machines should never be so loud that we forget to consider why we are actually producing what we are producing – this is how a genuine inter-institutional dialogue can develop towards “hearing” the exhibitions that talk past each other. This would point beyond the industrial noise of exhibition production and make it possible not only to broaden the scope but to also dispense with the cultural consumption method of concentrating on the new with the close of each show.
Translated by Zsófia Rudnay
Sára Tomcsányi graduated from Pázmány Péter Catholic University, where she studied art theory and Hungarian literature and linguistics. Currently, she is studying for a Master’s degree in Aesthetics at Eötvös Loránd University, where she is working on the critical potential and transcendentality of contemporary ecofeminist visual art through domestic case studies, but is also interested in the field of monastic art (especially nun art) and museum pedagogy. She is a student of the Master’s programme in Contemporary Art Theory and Curatorial Studies at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. She has organized exhibitions, written art and literary reviews and studies, which have been published in Jelenkor Online, Kalligram, Litera, Műút, prae and Kortárs Online. She is an external guide at the Hungarian National Gallery and a museum education associate at the Képező Galéria, and the editor of Nincs Folyóirat.
Attila Horányi is associate professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Aesthetics at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest. He has an MA in Art History and a PhD in Aesthetics, both from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. From 2009 to 2019 he was director of the Design Culture BA Program, and subsequently the director of the Design Theory MA program. Between 2021 and 2024 he served as the Director of the Institute for Theoretical Studies at MOME. Professor Horányi was president of the Hungarian Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) between 2016 and 2022 where he currently serves as Treasurer. His areas of research include photography theory, design theory, and the philosophy of art and art history. His latest publication, “Art / Objects” (MuseumCafé, December 2024) is an essay on how objects may and sometimes do become artworks.
[1] Critical approaches tend to feature more prominently in these exhibitions. Without claiming to be exhaustive, here are a few examples from recent years: Gyökerestül kitépni [Torn Out by the Root] – Budapest Gallery (2025); ACLIM – Agency for Climate Imaginary – OFF-Biennale (2021); Mesék a lucfenyőkről és más fákról az ökológiai krízis idején [Tales of the Spruce and Other Trees in Times of Ecological Crisis] – CEU Open Gallery (2024); Women/Water/Bodies – Liget Gallery (2024).
[2] Tanulni a természettől? – Botanika / Learning from Nature? – Botany, catalogue, ed. Edward Kovács, Szabolcs Süli-Zakar, Krisztián Gábor Török, MODEM Modern és Kortárs művészeti Központ [Centre for Modern and Contemporary Art, 2025.
[3] Cf. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/13/russia-war-with-ukraine-accelerating-global-climate-emergency-report-shows (Accessed: 15.04.2025.)
[4] https://mng.hu/kiallitasok/elohely-termeszet-es-tajkonstrukciok/ (Accessed: 15.04.2025.)
[5] Ibid.
[6] Élőhely. Természet- és tájkonstrukciók [Habitat: Constructions of Nature and Landscape], ed. Dávid Fehér, Katalin Harangozó, Sára Major, Linda Alexandra Tarr, A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai [Publications of the Hungarian National Gallery], 2025/1, ed. Judit Boros, Szépművészeti Múzeum – Magyar Nemzeti Galéria [Museum of Fine Arts Budapest – Hungarian National Gallery], 2025.
[7] András Szántó: Hans Ulrich Obrist: “Minden múzeum magja a nagylelkűség” [Generosity Is at the Core of Every Museum], A múzeum jövője [The Future of the Museum]. 28 dialogue, 215.
