Laudation MúzeumCafé Award 2015

Curators of the El Kazovsky Exhibition

Dear prize-winners, guests and colleagues,

The MúzeumCafé Award is being presented for the sixth time. Unusually, not one but three are involved. Unlike earlier, the award is not presented for managing a museum or curating a permanent exhibition, but for a project which no longer exists. The decision correlates with the endeavour to step over the boundaries appointed by ourselves, signified by the contextual and graphic redesign of our publication, in that now we no longer employ the criteria we adopted in 2010 when establishing the award. Yet something remains. What we have kept in mind is that the chosen achievement would point beyond its own significance and that the awardee’s approach would be exemplary. Achievement which clearly represents an undisputable value from every aspect can still be found in a divided art scene. Although an indirect link can be identified between MúzeumCafé and the exhibition curated by the awardees, this time we have discarded our inhibitions, which sometimes determined decisions of earlier years. The result is that the editorial board and staff of MúzeumCaféregard the exhibition The Survivor’s Shadow -– The Life and Works of El Kazovskyandthe work of its curators as the most important museum achievement of 2015.

The curators perfectly complemented one another in their attitude to the artist and their concepts of staging the exhibition: the joint, inspiring work of a theoretician, a friend and a museum expert.

KrisztinaJerger’s personal relationship with the artist cannot be disregarded, even if she had been an ideal choice to ‘only’ curate the exhibition. However, she was the guarantee that the depiction of El Kazovsky’s attractions and extremity was precise, that correlating the works and motifs, and the definition of the thematic content, could not be mistaken, and could not be more than or different from what the artist wanted to have the viewer see and that it became possible for generations to come to appreciate him.

AndrásRényi’s rumination over years about how to present the oeuvre became a fruitful mania. He was not only able as a conductor to define all the details of a large exhibition, he could also revise his own earlier concepts to find the best way of presentation.

LászlóSzázados is not only thoroughly familiar with the underground art movements of the era, but also the spaces of the museum that accommodated the exhibition. Thus he was able to create the context both in time and space which made it possible to place, perceive and value El Kazovsky’s art.