the eastern beat

Where are you from and how long have you been living in Budapest?

I'm from Poland and I came to Budapest for the first time in the 90s with my parents. We were coming here regularly for many years due to my parents’ job - we would stay in Budapest for three years and go back to Poland for four years, we were living between the two countries for a long time. In total, I’ve been here for around twenty years, so I feel at home in Hungary, even though my family lives in Warsaw.

When did you decide to stay in Hungary?

I went to the Secondary Art School in Bydgoszcz, Poland, around 350 kilometers from where I was from. Two years later we moved to Budapest with my parents and I had to find a school here. I was seventeen and my parents told me that if I wanted to continue an art school I should find one in Hungary or start a distance learning program at a Polish school.

I started learning Hungarian and I went to an art school here. It wasn’t an easy time as I didn't really speak the language, but I managed to do my final exams in Hungarian. Then I got accepted to The Hungarian University of Fine Arts, in the meantime my parents were supposed to go back to Poland, but I decided to stay here and study.

What do you do now?

I'm a painter and I run Art Salon Contemporary, but since I finished university I have worked in different places. I was managing the gallery at the Polish Institute, now I also work in a commercial gallery. Painting has always been important to me, but I wanted to have other jobs too not to depend on selling paintings as the only source of income. My parents worked at the Polish Embassy, my mum used to work in the Polish Institute and I grew up seeing how important what you do as your job is. I learned to combine different things and not to be afraid that something might not work out. You can always plan in a way that doing different jobs at the same time can work and bring something good.

Working in a commercial gallery has given me the experience in selling art or going to different art fairs abroad. At the Polish Institute I learned how to coordinate various art projects, we worked with Polish and Hungarian museums, we did an exhibition at such a place like Ludwig Museum - in total I think I coordinated around 150 exhibitions with the Institute, in collaboration with different curators. It was a very busy period and I enjoyed it a lot. 

How did you decide to be a painter?

Nobody in my family was a painter, I was encouraged to go to the Secondary Art School by one teacher. Twenty years ago many were saying painting was becoming less popular, things like video installations were a thing then, but I decided to stick to painting. In Hungary abstract painting has long traditions, I have been doing it for many years and my Salon also focuses on abstract art. It’s what I like and it’s become a trademark of my place. 

I decided to study painting to do what I love and to express myself. I was interested in contemporary art, but at the same time in how it all comes together, how combining different ideas and approaches works. For me painting is the act of creation, but as my days are busy I want it to be creative but also play with it. I noticed I don’t like sketching, I like to be spontaneous when creating. I often paint a few works at the same time, when one of them is drying I can work on another one and think how to continue with the other one. For me, most of the work happens away from the canvas. 

Your Art Salon Contemporary is unlike many traditional galleries, where did the idea come from?

From the beginning I didn't want the Salon to be a traditional gallery but more of a platform, it has different aims and I want to lead it differently than a traditional gallery. It all began when I was looking for a flat in which I could have my studio as well. It was important to me to paint where I work so that I don't waste my time commuting and have one place in which I feel good and create an atmosphere that allows me to work. I thought I would create a showroom to exhibit my works, but as I don't want to focus on myself and my work only, I thought it would be great to do something with other artists, do a vernissage, and invite people. I wanted to do even more, give the place a name, build a brand, work internationally, invite art collectors - create a place that is something new in Budapest. For me also the building itself, its history is important, the atmosphere of the place. The name Art Salon Contemporary was what suited best in my view. In the old days salons worked in a way that someone invited guests to their house, someone recited poetry, played music and people talked. Back then, 120 years ago there were no art galleries, rather there were big museums or national galleries. At that time, the role of the gallery was played by salons. It was prestigious to invite people and show art collections, it was a space where people met beyond restaurants and cafes and talked. Conversation was important, these days we spend a lot of time on our phones and having conversations in person is being substituted by phone calls or messages. I want it to be a place to meet people and find an audience that might not yet know a lot about art but is interested in it. My aim at the Salon is to invite people who would want to invest in art, but don't necessarily always have the background and come here for an event combined with art, like the cigar night for instance and make art closer to them this way. I want the art here to be visually attractive, not purely conceptual. 

How do you make your contacts with potential guests of the Salon?

I gathered a lot of contacts over the years, but I'm open to new ones. The Salon has been running for nearly two years now and I’ve met a lot of new people here as well through the friends I knew already. I’m grateful for all these connections and for the genuine interest these people have in what happens here. I want people to network here, meet others, bring their friends, like it used to be in salons.

Full renovation of the place took 1,5 years and for over a year I’ve been organizing regular exhibitions. As apart from the exhibition itself all the accompanying events are important - starting with the vernissage and different meetings. In the old Salons people used to play poker or other games, so I want to keep similar events as well, where people can play billiard, roulette or craps. Many people enjoy this and come for these events, where art is in the center of it all.

Do you only exhibit paintings?

We display paintings and sculptures mostly- for me three dimensional artworks are an important addition to exhibitions. 

There was also a photo exhibition with participation of Polish artists. I worked with many of them over the years and I would like to keep doing that. I know many galleries and curators in Poland, I talk to them about my projects and ask them for advice about artists who could participate. We also participate in competitions, apply for grants, I cooperate with art historians and we prepare the applications together. 

Artists from different countries have exhibited here, for example the USA, Germany, Finland or Great Britain.

Going back to Budapest, what makes you want to continue living here?

The city has a great vibe, each district is different, there's lots of expats living here. I like old cities, I like when things have their past, I feel good here. There’s a lot of galleries and art life here, lots of art events and the public is open to new things. I want the Salon to keep growing, to gather more people. I want to keep combining being an artist and leading salon as a unique space with an interesting program.