Socially Engaged Art, Emerging Forms of Civil Society: Early 1990s Exhibitions in Budapest and Bucharest

Abstract

Through a contextual reading and critical analysis of two post-1989 art exhibitions in Hungary and Romania, Polyphony (1993) and Exhibition 01010101 (1994), this article explores the distinct role played by curatorial discourses and socially engaged contemporary art in catalyzing locally emerging forms of democracy in the early 1990s. These exhibitions reveal the paradox of civil society in the wake of communism. Embracing a neoliberal approach, they juxtapose a desire for collective change against a longing to participate in the contemporary international art scene.