Exhibition of the Budapest Gallery’s 2021 artist exchange program / PRAE.HU
During the Budapest Gallery’s 2021 artist exchange program, Chloé Macary-Carney began the research that forms the basis of the exhibition on the ritual sites and practices of New Age communities in Hungary that combine many philosophies and religious customs. The artist’s presuppositions about these communities – that they are inclusive and safe – were overturned at the beginning of the research. For this reason, Macary-Carney set the goal of the exhibition to create such a space, open to everyone, where visitors are encouraged to create and share common experiences.
During the research, Chloé Macary-Carney simultaneously discovered the diversity, local and historical extent and political aspects of Hungarian New Age communities and Hungarian witchcraft, and tried to unravel the myths surrounding the communities. He recorded the interviews and observations he made during the interviews in Budapest in a book placed in the exhibition space, which compiles a detailed description and a personal tone for here-operators. In addition to the New Age movement originating from America in the 1960s and 1970s, he also researched traditional witchcraft and related Hungarian superstitions and customs. connected to setting points.
In the exhibition spaces, we find ourselves in the sulphurous pyramid home of the fictitious witch researcher Tony Lavazza, who also gives the title of the exhibition and acts as the artist’s alter ego. The situation is intimate and direct, as is the careful and sensitive processing of the wood and paper materials appearing in the space and the diary-like text of the research summary. The intimate space of the home invites visitors to unravel the foundations of witch communities – and through them, community functioning in general – together with the fictional researcher. Although the once strict rule systems of the witch communities, which were radically anti-patriarchal in opposition to the power of the day and regarded intra-group security as both a goal and a means, were relaxed, the importance of the feeling of belonging to each other and the common rituals later became part of the new witchcraft or the indicative element that overlapped with certain representatives New Age movement indicator. did not change in the case of
The images documenting and illustrating the research are indicated by colors in places, however, the artist recommends and even requests the visitors to use the space and objects – to present their own rituals – reading, talking, eating.
Chloé Macary-Carney (1994, New York) lives and works in Paris.
The exhibition was held at the Budapest Gallery between August 10 and September 18, 2022. The opening of the exhibition will take place on August 9, until 6 p.m. Another exhibition will be open to visitors at the same time in the Gallery, the opening will be at the same time, you can read more about it here.
Location: Budapest Gallery • 1036 Budapest, Lajos utca 158.