BURO - The Discreet Charm of Bureaucracy

Diploma project of Balázs Kristóf Németh
BKF, Institute of Media Arts, Animation MA
Co-artists: Barnabás Neogrády-Kiss / Tamás Boldi Hofmann / Zsolt Bukta

Project leaders: Gábor Ulrich, Éva M. Tóth 

Opening: 7 May 2015, 7 pm
Opened by: Csaba Bollók film director
On view: 8 - 22 May 2015

Bureaucratie: Desk-rule. " a phenomenon that has been existing for thousands of years, built in every civilized state, a rigid, petty, narrow-minded attitude in administration, the keeping of regulations in all cases " - sounds the general definition of bureaucracy. It is a concept of dual value, since its existence actually supposed to serve our interests.
Our existence as citizens is based on a series of bureaucratic acts. Already at the moment of our birth we are given a number to wear for a life, with which we officially become part of the system. Then, the recorded data keeps expanding, with new and new numbers and data.

"It is written in files, what I dreamt and also, who understands it." (Quote from Attila József’s poem, Air! /Levegőt!/

Waiting is an integral part of our everyday lives’ bureaucratic acts. We wait in front of "Windows" and "Customer services” at the post office, at the bank, in offices and for train tickets, thus the  exhibition space is transformed into an office in a symbolic sense.
The aim of the exhibition is partly to respond to the bureaucratic arrangements of our time, to pose  questions, to create new aesthetic qualities using the objects and symbols of the bureaucratic machine.
The exhibited works are mainly audiovisual projects, in which the motion picture, video and animation-based installations play an important role, but graphics and photography are present as well.