»Hey Hey, My My, Socialism can never die« –
The Photography of Franciska Legát and the Ghost(s) of Communist Hungary

Első Szalon @ Foton Galéria,
Friday, 1st of September 2023, 6 pm

A panel discussion with Franciska Legát,
moderated by Emese Kató and J. Adisdidene

In his song »Hey Hey My My« from 1979 Neil Young made the ambivalent promise: »Rock and roll can never die«. 2023 and thus finally arrived in the millennium of endless and unimaginative revivals, which make up the majority of the music market and also a not insignificant part of the art market today, you have to agree with him in principle. But you can also understand Neil Young like this: An idea, but also a »collective experience«, cannot really
be killed. »Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come«, said Victor Hugo. One might add: Nothing is harder to kill or »a better zombie« than an idea whose time is already over, as also the philosopher Martin Burkhardt pointed out once.
In her first solo exhibition, Franciska Legát traces precisely that elusive longevity, that »unkillability«, of an idea, and of a collective experience. She skilfully walks along the line, along that mainly illusionary »mental borderline«, that is drawn between the past and the present, between the East and the West, between her
generation and that of her parents, who still have vivid memories of communist Hungary. As one lets Legát’s work sink in, one thing gradually seems to become almost magically clear: the past
does not end where the present begins, nor does one’s spirit, even one’s memory, begin where those of the parents and grandparents stop.
But also that the border drawn by history, politics, and economy between East and West not only cannot be blurred so easily, but may never really be crossed, as that part of the exhibition seems to suggest that is concerned with the Hungarian emigration to Berlin from the 90s until today.
And photography itself? Unlike Roland Barthes’ famous and desperate attempt (»La Chambre Claire«,
1980) to decipher it as a memory of the past (also in Barthes’; case, to a certain extent, the generation of his parents, more precisely his mother plays the important role), with Legát it is more an attempt to »remember the present«. Her unique form of melancholy is not backwards, it almost seems, that it is rather
»nowwards«.

Első Szalon | Discourse Culture now!
The nomadic discourse forum on art and aesthetics.
On the 1st of every month.
Curated by Emese Kató and J. Adisdidene
Első Szalon is a »nomadic« discourse forum founded in 2023, primarily on themes of art and aesthetics, but also on philosophy and politics. As the name suggests, it takes place regularly on the first of every month at ever-changing locations. The aim is a contemporary exchange between artists, curators, theorists, art students, art historians, philosophers, and collectors.
However, the name Első Szalon also refers to the attempt to reinvent the »classic« salon idea, which was aimed more strongly at a fixed location and a narrower, often non-public, predetermined group of people.
In contrast, Első Szalon rather seeks regular discursive and spatial exchange with other institutions
and places by organising panel discussions and exhibition talks in galleries, museums, universities, locations of architectural or historical importance, and so on. It thus combines two essential modernist strategies into a new contemporary approach: the non-institutional discourse culture of the salon and the unlocatable, ever-wandering and wondering, »nowhere« flaneur.
The meetings and discussions of the salon are always carefully curated and usually involve one or more guests who reveal a special approach to the respective topic and co-moderate the evening with the curators.

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