Art Review. Hybrid Spaces: Digital and Physical in Rural Context

Abstract

The contemporary art exhibition We Must Cultivate Our Garden! curated by Gábor Gulyás has won the title Exhibition of the Year at Godot Institute of Contemporary Art in Budapest, Hungary. Its author Imre Bukta turned 70 in 2022 and all works of art exhibited in the vast space of the Godot Insitute are recent creations of the artist. With a high national and international visibility in the art scene, Bukta lives in the small Hungarian village Mezőszemere, Heves County, and his creation is centred on the paradoxes of contemporary rural life. We propose a review of the exhibition, by highlighting the subtle transitions between tradition and innovation, rural and urban, digital and physical, as presented in the rich display of artworks swinging between comic and tragic, featuring life in a forgotten place. The iconic installation titled Intelligent Hoe (Okoskapa) epitomises the hybridity of space construction in rural context.