Works of art about the economies of the post-socialist countries, from Croatia to Armenia, through Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania to Hungary. Works of 30 artists about the illusion of two global systems: capitalism and socialism.
The exhibition entitled “Behind the Counter” introduces thirty contemporary visual artists and art groups, whose work reflects on the economic processes and phenomena of the past 20 years of the post-socialist region, the Eastern block.
 *Miklós Surányi © Műcsarnok Kusnthalle Budapest 2010

Concepts such as distribution, production, work, consumption, capital, planning, worker, market or migration and immigration have meaning to us all, but they can come with different adjectives and interpretations depending on the aspect we examine them from: a socialist planned economy or the market economy. The exhibition wants to show that the economy is not some sort of an abstract concept or system unrelated to our everyday life, but a reality, which affects us every day almost in every moment, even when we do not necessarily realize it.
“While one tends to imagine the curves of frightening graphs when learning the theme of the exhibition, they will be surprised walking through the rooms of the Art Hall: instead of sets of figures and ugly production lines, the photos, installations, paintings and movie clips reveal real human stories that are sometimes sad, sometimes ironic, and sometimes happy in an “Eastern European” way. In the confused structure of economic processes affecting each other, not only is the product on the counter important, but the man behind it as well. (J.A., Heti Válasz, 21.06.2010)
 
 
More information:
www.mucsarnok.hu
 

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