The oeuvre of János Sugár includes works ranging form complex installations to video, to sculpture, concept art, photo and drawing. His characteristic language of forms include abstract spatial and graphic constructions and symbols. His social and political sensitiveness is far from moralising, at the same time, it is one that reveals the true essence of phenomena ironically and analyses it systematically.
Already in the 1980s, Sugár was one of the most influential young artists. He was a member of the Indigó Group, led by Miklós Erdély, and then one of the leaders of the Béla Balázs film studio. After the political transition in Eastern Europe, he was one of the founders of the Intermedia Department of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, in 1992, he participated in Documenta IX – so far the last Hungarian artist at Documenta.
His interests are manifested in a vast field stretching between two poles: One is analysis and intervention reflecting on the current environment and context, such as in his Mute series he cuts up and transforms excerpts from TV programmes, placing the dialogies into a new context. In his public space installation Elnézést (Sorry), he intervenes in the visual world of streets by placing pseudo traffic signs with a fictitious text. He has made serious efforts to get the authorities to approve the casting an old graffiti in bronze. On one occasion, he turned the facade of the Műcsarnok (Kunsthalle) upside down on a gigantic banner. He has recently been sued for a graffiti.
At the other pole are his almost abstract installations: using basic materials, he constructs almost virtual spaces out of glass sheets, (Az irreverzibilitás elefántja a jelen porcelánboltjában – The Elephant of Irreversibility in the China Shop of the Present / Műcsarnok – Kunsthalle, Budapest), from fibreboard and wires (A fizika bútorzata – The Furniture of Physics), and his pralinée moulds are recurring elements in his art for a long time.
His installation entitled Kairos vs Expeditus is based on everyday objects, a chair and a ladder, and he makes them symbolic with a simple gesture, covering them with black velvet. Two videos shown on small displays on the chair and the ladder lend another dimension to the work: Kairos, standing for the right moment, is represented on the chair by a camera showing a gate at the Frankfurt airport. Expeditus, signifying activity, shows the artist fighting a coil of cable the size of a man in a hotel room. Like fibre board or empty pralinée moulds in other works, the cable is an element of Sugár’s abstract language of forms.
His most widely known video, the Typewriter of the Illiterate, consists of images cut from newspapers and magazines, with a Kalashnikov submachine-gun on each of them. The images are morphed into one another around the submachine-gun. The images add up to media analysis with a direct emotional effect.
Zsolt Kozma
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
1980 – 1986
Magyar Képzőművészeti Egyetem, Budapest
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
film_video_stills, Kisterem, Budapest
2023
Horizontal Underground, Kisterem, Budapest
Sorry | Flaszter I. Biennale of Public Art, Budapest
2022
Luxury Vector, Magma, MAGMA Contemporary Art Space, Sfântu Gheorghe, (RO)
2019
Story from the Year Zero_Print Works. 1986–90, aqb Project Space, Budapest
2018
One must think about the fire, Kisterem, Budapest
2017
œuvre, tranzit.hu, Budapest
2014
(monuments), Kisterem, Budapest
2013
Holy Shit, Müszi, Budapest
2012
Fire in the Museum, Museum Kiscell, Budapest
2011
The Situation, Videospace, Budapest
2009
Power Is Invisible Until You Provoke It, B5, Targu Mures, Romania (RO)
Fortinbras in Year Zero, Vintage Gallery, Budapest
2007
Kairos vs Expeditus, Ladaproject, Berlin (D)
mute, Videospace, Budapest
2006
OE, FKSE Studio Gallery, Budapest
2005
Typewriter of the Illiterate, Annely Juda Fine Arts, London (UK)
2003
Check Your Six, Knoll Gallery, Budapest
2002
Convergent Series, Café Europe, Centro di Arte Contemporanea, Rome (IT)
Attention Recycling, Galerija Balen, Slavonskij Brod, Croatia (HR)
2000
General Reminder, Art Media Center, TV Gallery, Moscow, with Yuri Leiderman (RUS)
1999
Calligraphy Powerplant, Galleria Spicchi dell`Est, Rome (IT)
Context Trap, Artpool, Budapest
1998
Do You Know My Method? QQ Galeria, Cracow (PL)
1997
Galerie Knoll, Vienna (AT)
1996
Studio Gallery, Budapest
1993
Galerie Knoll, Vienna (AT)
1992
Knoll Gallery, Budapest
1991
Újlak, Tűzoltó 72, Budapest
1990
Budapest Gallery, Budapest
1989
Salone Villa Romana, Firenze (IT)
1988
Institut Francais, Budapest
REM Galerie, Vienna (AT)
Studio Of Young Artists, Budapest
1987
Lágymányosi Közösségi Ház, Budapest
Liget Gallery, Budapest
1986
Studio Gallery, Budapest
1985
Fényes Adolf Terem, Budapest
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Technocool. New Trends in Hungarian Art in the Nineties (1989–2001), Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
2023
Forcast and Fantasy, Estonian Museum of Architecture, Tallin (EST)
2021
Sketch, Kisterem, Budapest
2020
Finally We Can Learn Something, Kincsem Palace (organised by Kisterem), Budapest
The Dead Web, Ludwig Múzeum – Kortárs Művészeti Múzeum, Budapest
2019
The Dead Web, Ludwig Múzeum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Listing VIII., Kisterem
The Influencing Machine, Nicodim Gallery, Bucharest (RO)
Drinkers of Quintessences, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg (L)
Iparterv 50+, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
2018
Drinkers of Quintessences, Darling Foundry, Montreal (CA)
2017
“SaveAs…”–WhatWillRemainofNewMediaArt?, LudwigMuseum– Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Listing, Kisterem, Budapest
2016
Accumulator, Budapest Gallery, Budapest
Listing, Kisterem, Budapest
Progressive Intentions, Isztambuli Magyar Intézet, Isztambul (TR)
Up Memory Lane (Part II) RAMfoundation, Rotterdam, (NL)
2015
Art Has No Alternative, tranzit.sk, Bratislava (SK)
Identity and The Self, RAMfoundation, Rotterdam (NL)
Siliconevalse: Hungarian Reality, The Brno House of Arts, Brno (CZ)
2014
Turning Points, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
LUDWIG 25. The contemporary collection, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module, New Museum, New York (USA)
Gramatik of Fear, Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
2013
2nd Edition of the Biennial Project D-0 ARK Underground, Konjic, Croatia (HR)
2012
Video Vortex, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia (HR)
2011
The Lucifer Effect, DOX Center for Contemporary Art, Prague (CZ)
Nehéz ipar, ICA-D, Dunaújváros
2010
Re-Designing the East, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (D)
2009
3rd Quadrilateral Biennial, Museum Of Modern And Contemporary Art, Rijeka (HR)
2008
All that Cinema, Selection from the video collection of the Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Koncept, koncepció, szemelvények, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest
2007
The Projections Project, Budapest episode, Kunsthalle, Budapest
2006
Lost and Found, Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden (D)
2005
Traffic Exit Biennial II., Exit Art, New York (USA)
2003
Gravitation, International Public Art Exhibition, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2002
Without Emergency Exit, Centro Multimedia of Mexico DF (MEX)
2001
Werk 01, Bildhauersymposion, Heidenheim (D)
2000
L'Autre Moitié de l'Europe, Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR)
Cooperativ, Stadthaus, Ulm, Germany (D)
1999
Aspects/Positions, 50 Years Art From Middle Europe, 20er Haus, Vienna (AT)
Kunst der neunziger Jahre in Ungarn, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (D)
1997
Súlytalan, Ludwig Múzeum – Kortárs Művészeti Múzeum, Budapest
1996
Manifesta 1, Rotterdam (NL)
The Butterfly Effect, International Media Art Exhibition, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Schwere-los, Oberösterreichisches Landesgalerie, Linz (AT)
Gallery by Slide, Liget Galéria, Budapest
1995
Ostranenie 95, Dessau, Germany (D)
1994
Négy muskétás, Gallery by Night, Stúdió Galéria, Budapest
1993
OSTranenie, Dessau (D)
1992
Documenta IX, Kassel (D)
Revisions: Contemporary Hungarian Art, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide Museum of Art, Adelaide (AUS)
1991
Trigon, 8x2 aus 7, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (AT)
21. International Biennale, São Paolo (BR)
Sub Voce, Műcsarnok, Budapest
Oszcilláció, Šiesta Bašta, Komarno; Műcsarnok, Budapest
Europa Unknown, Palac Sztuki, Krakkó (PL)
Europaische Werkstatt, Recklinghausen (D)
1990
Triumph the Uninhabitable, Charlottenborg, Koppenhága, Műcsarnok, Budapest
8. Nemzetközi Kisplasztikai Biennálé (fődíj), Műcsarnok, Budapest
1989
Más-kép: experimentális fotográfia az elmúlt két évtizedben Magyarországon, Ernst Múzeum, Budapest
Junge Künstler DDR-UVR: Malerie, Grafik, Plastik, Ernst Múzeum, Budapest
Kék acél, Budapest Galéria, Budapest
1988
Ázsiai-Európai Művészeti Biennálé, Kemal Atatürk Centre, Ankara (TR)
5. heidelbergi Grafikai Biennálé, Heidelberg (D)
1980
1980-1986 - Tizennyolc kiállítás és akció az INDIGÓ csoporttal
Videos
Publications
SELECTED PRESS
Tanárok a Képzőművészeti Egyetemen IX. – Sugár János, ARCHÍVUM, Artmagazin 2006/4. 60-65 o., Orosz Márton
KOZMA GY.: Muszáj néha mentegetőzni, Élet és Irodalom, 1988. március 18.
KOZMA GY.: Talán, Élet és Irodalom, 1989. június 9.
GYÖRGY P.: A baloldali kritika, Hiány, 1990/7.
BORA G.: Konceptus és Kontextus, Belvedere, 1990/6-7.
HEGYI L.: Tér-Objekt-Installáció, Art, 1991
KURDY FEHÉR J.: Az ki tervét felfedi, Magyar Narancs, 1992/29.
TOPOR T.: Beszélgetés, Művészet, 1993/5.
BARDI T.: A senki földjén voltunk, Beszélő, 1993. október 26.
IVACS Á.-KURDY FEHÉR J.: Egy csomag vasdrót, néhány vessző, farostlemez, egy pici gipsz és néhány cukorkás doboz, Gondolat-Jel, 1995/5.
MIHANCSIK ZS.: Kötelező fecsegés, Beszélő, 1997/10.
LOVINK, G.: Intermedia: The Dirty Digital Bauhaus Convergence, 1998
SNODGRASS, S.: Report from Budapest, Art in America, 1998/10.
HORNYIK S.: A láthatatlan művészet kontextusai, Új Művészet, 1999/8
Interview in: Geert Lovink, Uncanny Networks – In Dialogue with the Virtual Intelligentia, MIT Press, 2002
MARIA MARCOS: Kontextus-légypapír, Exindex, 2003
TARCZALI ANDREA: Figyelemcsapda, Balkon, 2003/4
BEATA HOCK, in: frakcija, No. 33/34
HAJDU ISTVÁN, beszélgetés I., Balkon 2005/május
HAJDU ISTVÁN, beszélgetés II., Balkon 2005/június
OROSZ MÁRTON: A fejünkre eső tégla, Artmagazin, 2006/4