Műcsarnok#Box
opening: Thursday 22 September 2016, 5 p.m.
Opening by Bálint Veress; Aesthete, Associate Professor
Curator: professor János Szirtes, Head of MOME Media Design Department
The Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) boasts a history of 136 years. It has trained generations of artists and designers, always remaining faithful to its principles throughout the vicissitudes of history. Over and above instruction in the fundamentals and technologies of creating spaces, forms and objects, as well as of visual communication, the principal goal of the institution is to nurture creative, artistically and intellectually aware minds.
The Department of Media Design, a part of the Media Institute, was established over thirty years ago. Originally a video programme, it went on to be extended in line with contemporary trends and developments in technology. The BA and MA programmes are complemented with the University’s DLA in Multimedia programme.
This is not the first time our Department has exhibited at Műcsarnok. The exhibition called MOME Media Playground (http://mediaplay.blog.hu), which opened in the apse of Műcsarnok in 2010, presented the latest works of our students. It was part of a large display that celebrated fifty years of the Balázs Béla Studio: the very fact is indicative of how training at the Department is not simply oriented towards the future of technology-based fields, but is also linked to traditions in a myriad ways.
With the media art installations and interactive projects now on view in Műcsarnok#Box, the current exhibition, CONTROL, can only present a snippet of the training activity at MOME’s Department of Media Design. Most of the exhibits are diploma pieces, several of which were awarded the rector’s special prize. Made in the past few years, these works have not yet been shown to the public.
The works can be viewed on two monitors. One features the most successful works of recent years, the other displays short presentations by the graduates of the past five years. The pieces shown include software-based kinetic works, interactive installations, as well as street actions, experimental shorts, documentations of media designs and other productions, medical, scientific, business and marketing interfaces and applications.