Curated by Kata Balázs, acb ReserachLab

Opening speech by Erzsébet Tatai, art historan

The exhibition has been produced in collaboration with acb Gallery, Budapest and with the contribution of MissionArt Gallery, Budapest-Miskolc.

Th exhibition is on view until the 10 December, 2021, and can be visited on appointment (e-mail to [email protected]).

Zsuzsi Ujj's first solo exhibition (entitled First exhibition) was organized in November 1987, exactly 34 years ago, at Liget Gallery, home to experimental /alternative art and fine art photography. 

In the spirit of 'new wave' and characterized by the artist's own interest, the show was accompained by a combiantion of literature/poetry and music – i.e. songs written for Zsuzsi Ujj's melancholic-ironic lyrics – and visual arts. This is evidenced not only by the concerts that were played at the vernissage and the finissage of the exhibition, but also by an artist’s publication that went along with the show. This booklet provides the artist's own selection of photographs taken up to the end of 1987, as well as her poems/lyrics and sheet music. The current exhibition is based on this publication, known as First Booklet. It presents the content of the booklet, showing copies of photographs that were included in original selection as well as providing additional images from the photo series that were part of it.

Zsuzsi Ujj's photographic work unfolded between 1985 and 1991. In this short period the artist who came from outside the traditional framework of the art establishment created a unique body of work of Hungarian art photography that articulates and processes fundamental human/women's experinces, female roles and clichés. 

From the early nineties Zsuzsi Ujj literally replaced the camera with a microphone. She became a central figure in the Hungarian alternative music scene as a founding member, singer and lyricist of the Csókolom band. Since 2010 she has also been working with pianist Kristóf Darvas.  Her international (re)discovery  was marked by her participation in the exhibition Gender Check at MUMOK Vienna in 2009 and her invitation to the exhibition Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance Art (Tate Modern, London) in 2012. 

On the occasion of the exhibition, acb Gallery publishes a risograph reprint of the First Booklet  in 100 numbered copies. The booklet has been produced by Hurrikan Press, Budapest.