Critical Agoras

2012 / Other projects

About the project

The panel discussion series addresses questions of policy affecting the profession and presents field-specific innovations both to the university and the external community. What is the role of art universities? Why should a designer/artist acquire theoretical knowledge? What does design research mean? What kind of specific and innovative methods could be used in learning and teaching in the areas of the creative markets? Our discussions revolve around these and related topics with the participation of local and international guests. The public debates provide an opportunity to get to know the work of researchers, writers, and scholars that further the development of Hungarian design culture.

Contributors

Photography:

Dorka Taskovics, Alida Kovács, Antal Csipes, Sári Zagyvai

Drawings:

Levente Csordás

Poster design:

Noémi Vágvölgyi, Bori Skrapits, Enikő Déri

THE GUESTS OF THE DEBATES WERE:

Zoltán Kékesi (Hungarian University of Fine Arts), culture researcher;

Márton Szentpéteri (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, MOME), historian of ideas, design theorist;

Lóránt Péteri (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music), music historian;

Lóránt Stőhr (University of Theater and Film Arts, Budapest), film historian

András Ferkai (MOME), architectural historian; Ákos Moravánszky (ETH- Zürich), architecture theorist

“The time for this piece has come…” To understand the reason behind that sentence, we talked with professor András Ferkai (MOME), the author of the Opus Mirabile award-winning book on Farkas Molnár (Terc Publishing 2011). Moderator: prof. Ákos Moravánszky (ETH Zürich).

6:00 pm, 15 May 2013

Graham Howes (University of Cambridge), art historian

Graham Howes, sociologist of religion was born in Norwich, Great Britain in 1938. Currently, he lives in Cambridge and Norfolk. He is an emeritus fellow of Trinity Hall College, Cambridge, trustee of ACE (Art and Christianity Enquiry), and the member of the advisory board of Art and Christianity journal. He has been publishing for decades in the topic of theology and visual arts (Theology and the Visual Arts, 1994; English Cathedrals and the Visual Arts, 2005; The Art of the Sacred, 2007; Art in the Service of God, 2009). In his lecture, he discusses the relatedness of reception aesthetics and religious experience among visitors of English cathedrals and art galleries.

Jessica Hemmings (NCAD, Dublin), textile theorist

Henrietta Fiáth (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), design theorist Gábor Képes (Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport), museologist, sci-fi researcher Pál Koós (MOME), designer Gyöngyvér Horváth (MOME), art historian

Litza Juhász (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), museum pedagogue Zsuzsa Hajós (Roundtable Theatre in Education), theatre pedagogue Zsófia Ruttkay (MOME TechLab), mathematician György Darvas (Eötvös Loránd University), philosopher of science Fanni Ungváry (Hátsó Kapu community space), sociologist

Sebastian Baden (HfG, Karlsruhe), art historian

Sebastian Baden art historian and curator discussed the history and modes of depicting terror in contemporary art. Video documentation of the event

Mihály Bodó, painter, philosopher Júlia Katona (Hungarian National Gallery), museologist János Kurdy-Fehér, writer, poet, PR expert Csaba Szegedi (MOME), painter

This critical agora was accompanied by the book launch of Mihály Bodó’s book titled Painting as a play on words. From Cimabue to Carravaggio. (A festészet mint nyelvjáték. Cimabuétól Carravaggióig Typotex Publishing, 2013), in which the author points out that the paintings of ages past can be studied not only as figurative art but also as abstract painting. The propositions of Mihály Bodó provided a good opportunity to raise questions about the rules of abstract vs. figurative photography, video frames, or about the visual language that our images’ figurative meanings or higher-level messages indeed build or can build upon? Video documentation of the event

Jeroen Boomgard (Gerrit Rietveld Academie), art historian

Natália Fábics (MOME), film theorist Gábor Gelencsér (Eötvös Loránd University), film historian Zsolt Gyenge (MOME), film theorist Tamás Pólya (EKF), film theorist

Zsolt Gyenge discussed the topic of his doctoral dissertation titled Image, Moving Image, Comprehension. A Phenomenological Theory of Film Analysis. Questions were raised such as: What makes a film expressive? What is the role of phenomenology in filmmaking and reception? Where is the place of the movie theatre among these experiences? The moderator of the event was Natália Fábics film theorist.

Andrea Virginás (Sapientia-EMTE), film theorist

Andrea Virginás in her lecture titled Periphery and Hollywood discussed the key points of the career and oeuvre of Vincenzo Natali, Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofsky, Tom Tywker and Nicholas Winding Refn, and analysed the role of generic panels in European small cinemas.