Music takes centre stage at the next event of the New York School Project! Composers Máté Balogh and Marcell Dargay will perform a piece of music written jointly by the composers and Duo Sera (saxophonist Erzsébet Seleljo and harpist Anastasia Razvaljajeva).
In Hungary, the liberating power of the New York School has perhaps had its most direct impact in the field of contemporary music. Composers Marcell Dargay and Máté Balogh, rather than offering a traditional performance, aim to evoke the figures of John Cage, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, and Frank O’Hara through their musical presentation. Their concert is not merely a tribute; it also features their own musical ideas alongside texts and thoughts from young poets involved in the project, continuing the New York School’s tradition of cross-disciplinary artistic endeavors into the present day. In addition, this evening will include a lecture by poet András Gerevich on the queer and camp aesthetics in the poetry of New York School poets. Participation is free of charge, but pre-registration is required due to limited space.
Throughout the month of June, the Várfok Gallery will host a series of art events and exhibition, featuring artists, poets, contemporary composers, and jazz musicians, all aimed at evoking the spirit of the New York avant-garde of the 1950s.
The New York School Project, conceived by art historian Krisztina Kovács, the art director of Várfok Gallery, and poet/playwright Péter Závada, is a series of interdisciplinary art programs. It aims to showcase the work of New York School’s poets, visual artists, and composers, inspiring Hungarian artists to create new collaborative works. The project has brought together visual artists Márton Dés, Anna Nemes, Máté Orr, and Anna Eszter Tóth; poets Dénes Krusovszky, Márton Simon, Anna Emilia Szűcs, Kinga Tóth, and Péter Závada; and composers Máté Balogh and Marcell Dargay.
The project seeks to present the vibrant creative collaborations and camaraderie that characterized the New York art scene of the 1950s and 1960s. This era serves as both a fruitful artistic practice and an effective survival strategy, which will be showcased to domestic and international audiences.
While such lively interactions between creators of different artistic fields were common in the Hungarian neo-avant-garde of the 1970s and 1980s, exemplified by figures such as Tamás St. Auby, Miklós Erdély, Péter Halász, Tibor Hajas, János Szirtes, and the Orfeo group, today, poets, painters, and musicians rarely meet.
The New York School Project aims to reignite social relations, fostering collegial interest and solidarity, and ultimately promoting a sense of well-being among artists. Echoing Susan Sontag’s closing line in her famous 1964 essay „Against Interpretation” — „In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.” — the New York School Project emphasizes artists’ curiosity, openness to each other, and the joy of free creation.
The exhibition in the Project Room, the interdisciplinary space of Várfok Gallery, one of Hungary’s most distinguished art galleries, will feature uniquely illustrated poetry books, poetry-inspired paintings and ceramics, sound poetry installations, and contemporary music and poetry video works. Accompanying events will include jazz and contemporary music concerts, performances, improvisations, and readings.