Unheard – Opening of Szabó Eszter’s Exhibition
Free
Exhibition/Installation
Genre:
Global Art/Crossover
Szervezés:
House of Music Hungary production
Unheard – Opening of Szabó Eszter’s Exhibition
Eszter Szabó’s installation titled “Hallatlan” can be seen in the Lobby of the House of Music between February 4 and March 30; the exhibition will be opened by aesthete and critic György Cséka, head of department at KEMKI, on February 4 at 18:00.
Eszter Szabó: Hallatlan
(installation, 5 oil and polyester paintings with sound; 2026)
This site-specific installation, consisting of oil paintings and sounds, each painting measuring 2m x 3m, was made specifically for the lobby of the House of Music. The characters painted on the translucent material exist in a free space and time that prescribes no activity, just like the space inhabited by visitors arriving for the events.
The audience filling the space by standing around, sitting and talking becomes the backdrop of the images; the curtain blurs reality and image together. The elderly figures in this series deconstruct a classical antique sculpture and its related cultural tradition, and occupy it with their aged bodies, their provocative (cheeky) sprawling, and by (re)arranging the elements of the statue. The title refers to the subversive, “unheard-of” activity carried out by these women deliberately painted in a way that is not traditionally “feminine.”
The dismantled fragments of the antique statue depicted in the paintings recall the Venus statue and the column beneath it from Lucas Cranach’s 1564 painting “The Fountain of Youth,” in connection with which Eszter Szabó created a two-part drawing series in 2025 titled “To the Left of and Below the Fountain of Youth.”
Eszter Szabó
Eszter Szabó graduated in 2006 from the Painting Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, then in 2016 obtained a diploma from Le Fresnoy École Internationale des Arts Contemporains. Her works include drawings, paintings and short, non-narrative animations. In recent years she has been building sculptural video installations from a blend of these. The videos are further elaborations of the paintings in 2D, 3D and most often using mixed animation techniques. A recurring theme in her work is the portrait of fictional yet familiar-looking figures, for which she gathers inspiration in the street. In her working method she focuses on elements that have become invisible through their very familiarity. Her protagonists are mostly tired, fallible, angry, ageing East-Central European women. Figures existing in a specific geographical, political and social context characteristic of them. Eszter Szabó’s works have been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions outside Hungary, including in Paris, New York and Brussels. In 2021 she was awarded the Leopold Bloom Art Award.
Eszter Szabó: Hallatlan
(installation, 5 oil and polyester paintings with sound; 2026)
This site-specific installation, consisting of oil paintings and sounds, each painting measuring 2m x 3m, was made specifically for the lobby of the House of Music. The characters painted on the translucent material exist in a free space and time that prescribes no activity, just like the space inhabited by visitors arriving for the events.
The audience filling the space by standing around, sitting and talking becomes the backdrop of the images; the curtain blurs reality and image together. The elderly figures in this series deconstruct a classical antique sculpture and its related cultural tradition, and occupy it with their aged bodies, their provocative (cheeky) sprawling, and by (re)arranging the elements of the statue. The title refers to the subversive, “unheard-of” activity carried out by these women deliberately painted in a way that is not traditionally “feminine.”
The dismantled fragments of the antique statue depicted in the paintings recall the Venus statue and the column beneath it from Lucas Cranach’s 1564 painting “The Fountain of Youth,” in connection with which Eszter Szabó created a two-part drawing series in 2025 titled “To the Left of and Below the Fountain of Youth.”
Eszter Szabó
Eszter Szabó graduated in 2006 from the Painting Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, then in 2016 obtained a diploma from Le Fresnoy École Internationale des Arts Contemporains. Her works include drawings, paintings and short, non-narrative animations. In recent years she has been building sculptural video installations from a blend of these. The videos are further elaborations of the paintings in 2D, 3D and most often using mixed animation techniques. A recurring theme in her work is the portrait of fictional yet familiar-looking figures, for which she gathers inspiration in the street. In her working method she focuses on elements that have become invisible through their very familiarity. Her protagonists are mostly tired, fallible, angry, ageing East-Central European women. Figures existing in a specific geographical, political and social context characteristic of them. Eszter Szabó’s works have been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions outside Hungary, including in Paris, New York and Brussels. In 2021 she was awarded the Leopold Bloom Art Award.
-
Genre:
Electronic/Sound Art, Experimental
Sorozat: Transparent Sound New Music Festival
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Sorozat: Broadcast of the recording of the Royal Opera House performance in London
Rock Troubadours (US, 70s): CSNY, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Roy Harper
Genre:
Pop, Singer-songwriter
Genre:
Pop, Singer-songwriter
Genre:
Traditional/Global
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Sorozat: Hangadó: Under the Magnifying Glass – Árpád Tóth's interactive lecture series
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Genre:
Jazz, Experimental
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary, Literature
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Genre:
Global Art/Crossover, Experimental
Sorozat: Programme of the Interdisciplinary Performance Call
Sorozat: Composers Present
Sorozat: Bartók Music School – New Music 2026
Genre:
Pop, Electronic/Sound Art
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Sorozat: Teacher's Professional Day
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Sorozat: Worlds of music in the House of Music
Genre:
Jazz, Improvisation
Genre:
Classical/Contemporary
Sorozat: Hangadó: Under the Magnifying Glass – Árpád Tóth's interactive lecture series
