BALATON EYE - AIR 2022 – 2023 International fine arts residency program is connected to local artistic traditions and to the Modern Art Gallery - László Vass Collection presented in the House of Arts Veszprém. Reflecting the Veszprém - Lake Balaton region foreign and Hungarian artists will work together on a pre-defined thematic in the fields of painting, sculpture/installation and light art.
During the programme the finished works will be presented in the Veszprém - Balaton region and in the exhibition spaces of the House of Arts Veszprém. The participants in the project are graduates of higher art studies and have significant professional experience in the field of fine arts. Their works are shown at various national and international exhibitions, solo and group exhibitions every year.
András Bernát /H/ and Peter de Thouars /NL-RI/ met four decades ago at the József Somogyi Artists' Village on the shores of the Inner Lake in Tihany, one of the most renowned art centres in the Veszprém - Lake Balaton region.
In the decade preceding the change of regime, after many years of unsuccessful attempts Dutch higher education in the fine arts was given the opportunity to establish contacts with Hungary. The art colony in Tihany, run by the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts proved to be the ideal place for students from the two countries to meet behind the Iron Curtain on the shores of Lake Balaton.
Ferenc Gőgös /1936 - 2011/ poet, painter left Budapest in 1956. From the 1970s, as a professor at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunst in Arnhem he tried to establish good relations between Dutch and Hungarian art education. He introduced his Dutch students to the students of the painter Ignác Kokas /1926 - 2009/ at the art school in Tihany. The friendship between András Bernát and Peter de Thouars began at this time and still plays a decisive role in the lives of the artists.
Through the BALATON EYE - AIR project, supported by the European Capital of Culture programme artists will return to Lake Balaton in 2022 and 2023 to present their latest works reflecting on the region in exhibitions and workshops as part of the MIRRORS OF SPACE project.
The exhibition will be open until 14 August 2022.
The programme is supported by the VEB2023 European Capital of Culture programme.
