MMA is not Sexy, 2012

In December 2012, I took part in a residency in Budapest organized by the City of Vienna in cooperation with the Budapest Galéria. This period was marked by protests from artists and cultural workers against the Hungarian Academy of Arts (Magyar Művészeti Akadémia, MMA for short). This institution had existed previously, but in 2011 it was significantly empowered by Viktor Orbán's government and equipped with far-reaching authority. The protests were directed against the political appropriation of art and the restriction of cultural autonomy – the MMA became a symbol of state-controlled, national-conservative cultural policy.
At the end of my stay, I was required to submit a work for the collection of the History Museum/Municipal Picture Gallery. I took the protests as an occasion and created an object with the text “MMA is not sexy,” reminiscent of an ordinary protest sign. Since I submitted it unwrapped, the person who came to pick it up had to carry it openly through the streets of Budapest. Whether the object was actually incorporated into the collection is unknown to me. According to the contract, it should be there.