ResearchLab

acb ResearchLab was established in September 2015 within the framework of the acb Gallery. The activity of the ResearchLab focuses on research, filling a gap in the presentation and publication of Hungarian Neo-avant-garde and Post-avant-garde oeuvres, with regard to the context of current international discourses and considering interregional aspects. The core activities of the ResearchLab – besides the dissemination of the research results to Hungarian and international professional audiences – include the serial publication of smaller monographic editions as well as the publication of scientific treatises summarising several years of research. ResearchLab is open to institutional and research cooperations within Hungary and abroad.

The research projects conducted by acb ResearchLab focus on the discovery and presentation of new artworks, previously marginalized oeuvres and artistic phenomena, as well as the creation of a database of artists represented by acb Gallery. 

acb ResearchLab was directed by Emese Kürti between 2015 and 2018 and is currently operating under the leadership of Kata Balázs and Róna Kopeczky.


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E-book 'Hidden Heritage: Visegrad Artists' Estates and Archives'


Book hidden heritage visegrad artists estates and archives cover


We invite you to read the publication 'Hidden Heritage: Visegrad Artists' Estates and Archives', which was created as part of the Hidden Visegrad Heritage: Artists' Studios On-Line project.
The e-book is one of the outcomes of a conference devoted to the broadly understood issues related to the care of private archives of artists, which took place on October 24, 2024.
The subject of particular concern for researchers, archivists, and cultural institutions should currently be, above all, materials created and collected by artists born in the 1930s and 1940s. These are the most vulnerable to dispersion and destruction, as their creators do not always have the opportunity to pass on their artistic achievements to anyone. It should also be noted that the most important sources of information about these resources, about the materials and works collected in them, are their creators, who are almost organically connected with them. Unless we preserve their knowledge, we will lose a valuable cultural resource.
The English term “estate” has no equivalent in meaning in Polish, for example. Instead, we usually use the imprecise term “archive,” which originally did not refer to a collection in the hands of a private individual. This peculiar terminological gap indicates that the problem of artistic legacies requires consideration and work. It requires it in general, and in Central and Eastern Europe in particular.
It is only relatively recently that such resources have been recognized in our region as an important element of the cultural field. As part of the “Hidden Heritage...” project, we archive materials held by artists or their heirs, digitize them, and make them available online, but we also look at the places where they are stored, seeing them as important points on the cultural map of our region. We also strive to exchange experiences in the field of working with this type of material, develop the best methods of handling the objects, but also the stories associated with them.
In our publications, we try to answer the following questions:
– how to permanently and effectively secure a given resource;
– how to support artists and their heirs in the process of preserving these resources;
– how best to document their storage locations and care for them as valuable cultural resources;
– whether we can develop our own adequate terminology for them.

Authors:
Kata Balázs, Polana Bregantová, Katarína Bajcurová, Markéta Čejková, Gabriela Garlatyová, Richard Kitta, Róna Kopeczky, Tomas Marusiak, Luiza Nader, Jana Písaříková, Agnieszka Popiel, Tomasz Popiel, Wiktoria Szczupacka
Editor: Marika Kuźmicz
Collaboration: Adam Parol
Design and layout: Kacper Greń
Proofreading: Barry Keane

The project is co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The fund's mission is to promote the idea of sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

The e-book is available here:
hidden_heritage_visegrad_artis...

Program hidden heritage ig 01 w






Current research topics

  • Participation in the project Hidden Heritage - Artists' Studios On-line, supported by the Visegrad Fund (2023/2025)
    Link:      
  • Neo-avant-garde / experimental textile and fabric art
  • Research on the oeuvre of the Pécs Workshop artists
  • Experimental art in the 1980s

Publications

During the first five years of its operation, acb ResearchLab produced a series of publications dealing with the work of the Pécs Workshop’s members, the enamel experiments at the Bonyhád Enamel Factory, the activity of the Bosch+Bosch Group, the oeuvre of Katalin Ladik, Árpád fenyvesi Tóth, Katalin Nádor as well as the Substitute Thirsters’ body of work. Acb ResearchLab also published gap filling volumes focusing on the developments of art photography in the eighties and nineties, through the practices of Tibor Várnagy and Ágnes Eperjesi. In 2021, Neo-avant-garde fabric art came to the fore, by processing the oeuvre of Margit Szilvitzky and Klára Kuchta.imenaeos.

Publications

Gyula Várnai

5000 HUF, 15 EUR