Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, in accordance with its openness to new approaches in art and interdisciplinarity, is awaiting its visitors in October 2020 with a spectacular new exhibition. The show will feature incredibly interesting visualizations by the world-famous network researcher Albert-László Barabási, including the Global Art Network, inviting critics and the public to enter into a dialogue.
It is the undisguised aim of contemporary art museums to engage the present. This is not only true in regard to their fundamental task of collecting works, but also in terms of their functionality. Collecting and exhibiting institutions must provide opportunities that are in line with today’s expectations for the presentation of art, and for other kinds of experiences and services that art museums have begun to offer. New strategies are constantly being developed to engage visitors with the latest mediation techniques and by using the language and terminology of the current moment.
The Ludwig Museum in Budapest is no exception. Our intent is to be an authentically pluralistic institution, by providing a framework for both the artwork and its perception. And, like other contemporary art spaces, we take current artistic practice as a starting point as we ask and answer: What makes an artwork relevant? What do new artistic approaches mean in a museum? How should a museum relate to, or embrace, a presentation practice that makes room for the artwork and its context, as well as for the sensibility of our time?
The exhibition is organized around the past twenty-five years of visual research [or visual expression] of the Boston-based BARABÁSILAB, whose work focuses on the search for mostly unseen connections behind various phenomena. By embracing the true complexity of real systems, Barabási’s work demonstrates the presence and the role of interconnectedness from nature and society to culture and art.
The exhibition provides an overview of ongoing research processes and analyses at the BARABÁSILAB, among them The Art Network, which depicts relationships between artists and institutions, and the timely topic of how the Covid-19 pandemic impacts human mobility and our way of life. Ultimately, Hidden Patterns is about introducing the spirit of network thinking in the world of art and to a broader, interested audience.
The visual vocabulary developed by the BARABÁSILAB are already present in the tool kit and forms of expression of contemporary art. They are harbingers of an opportunity and a potential it would be foolish for us to ignore.
“Albert-László Barabási is part of a great tradition of Hungarian art and science. In Hidden Patterns, we see the convergence of science and art, which is so typical of the best part of European culture. If we have a closer look at the field of art, we realize that the scientifically based art movements such as Constructivism, Bauhaus, and De Stijl are all enriched by the pivotal contributions of Hungarian artists.” (Peter Weibel)