Dear Contemporary Artists,

“Kepesita as project and as a made-up word was born in 2009. Up until today it stood for the documentation of a 952 day-long journey from Hungary to New Zealand and now it aims to embrace the initiatives generated by the experience of this venture. Indeed, there might be more common points between travelling and creating than we would think so. You, as artists, also travel – either in reality or in fantasy -, with or without money, with or without goals. You also confront situations when you cannot express yourself, you also get scared and undergo cultural shock. You also say good byes, aim for peaks, flee, get lost, you are also taken in and welcomed as guests…

We all know that during journeys as such it is good to have some support. I would like to build an art collection in this spirit with the central theme of the ‘Road’. These “wanderings” could be represented by an annually growing selection of artworks through which – aside from the one-time support – you would enjoy ongoing promotion. The pieces, by juxtaposing each other, could stand for a lifestyle, a passage of life or even a philosophy of life and its socio-cultural significance.”

Peter
(2014)

The collection

We aim to put out one open-call yearly for artists under 35. Initially we concentrate on the Hungarian art scene and later on we plan to involve artists from the CEE region as well. The theme of the collection is the ‘Road’ and each year the open-calls focus on one momentum of ‘being on the road’. We plan to build a high quality collection that carries the spirit of Kepesita. For quality insurance, the professional jury is responsible for the selection. From the submissions one selected artist will be chosen for the collection; the submitted artwork(s) are purchased for the collection within the limits of the fund available.

Péter Varga – The founder of Kepesita Collection

Péter was born in 1980, Debrecen. Travelling and hitchhiking have been central interests for Péter since his childhood. As a teenager he hitchhiked various parts of Europe and the initial passion has grown to be a lifestyle.

In 2009 Péter decided to – slowly but surely – hitchhike the world. After a long journey that lasted for about three years, he decided to make the experience of travelling last. He took on a job in Norway where he presently works on the prevention of rock-slides and he dedicates a significant part of his salary to the support of social and cultural projects that reference the theme of ‘being on the road’.

The creation of this contemporary art collection is one of his initiatives. Péter decided to build a collection because he is not only willing to help young contemporary artists with a one-time donation, but – given that the works purchased shall become active players in the contemporary art world – he would also like to provide and ongoing promotional surface for the artists at the beginning of their career.

Coordinators, partners

The open-calls are coordinated by Délia Vékony, lecturer at the Department of Arts Management, International Business School, Budapest. Délia Vékony (IBS) is an art historian and philosopher and did her studies in South Africa (BA, MA) and in the Netherlands (Leiden University, phd). She is an active agent in the contemporary art world, coordinates exhibitions and publishes regularly for art periodicals.

The collection is taken care of by Pál Sándor Tóth, founder of GalleryTool and head of cARTc.

The professional jury

Sándor Hornyik is a senior researcher of the Institute of Art History of HAS (RCH). He has done curatorial work for leading institutions such as MODEM (Debrecen) or Ludwig Museum, Budapest. His research field includes the theories of art history and visual culture, the praxis of avant-garde and neo-avant-garde art, and the phenomena of contemporary art.

Áron Fenyvesi, curator, writer, former chief curator of Trafó Gallery, Budapest, former chair of FKSE, member of various art juries, currently works as curator and researcher for ACB Gallery.