Csoszó Gabriella

The photographs of the series Shelves (2009) were taken in three different libraries. The point of departure for this jointly authored work is the Lukács archives, a project, which was begun two years ago, and which consists of the precise documentation of the philosopher’s Budapest residence and the research facility that was established there after his death in 1971.

The rest of the photographs in the series were taken in two locations: at the Institute of Political Science, documenting the book collection left behind by János Kádár, Secretary General of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party and Prime Minister, and in the private library of a prominent film director of Hungarian film history, who began his career in the 1960s, and who has asked to remain anonymous.

Shelves was created for the exhibition Other Voices, Other Rooms – Attempt(s) at Reconstruction. Fifty Years of the Balázs Béla Studio held at the Műcsarnok / Kunsthalle Budapest in 2009. The bookshelf and the photographs came to comprise one of the elemental units in presenting the Studio’s history and mapping the related intellectual environment; they became a tool for representing places, sites and themes, as well as key social-political issues.

The photographs featured at the exhibition were not marked for date and place taken; they formed a single row, or “shelf”.

Lívia Páldi /Gabriella Csoszó

places: Parts of private library of George Lukács, Lukács Archive, Budapest,
Parts of library of János Kádár, Institute of Political Sciences, Budapest, Private Library from the seventies