In Circulation

The In Circulation exhibition series was launched by the Contemporary Design Department of the Museum of Applied Arts. During the period of the reconstruction of the museum’s main building on Üllői Road, it is especially important that we keep the pieces of the collection in circulation. In the framework of our series entitled In Circulation, we have invited contemporary designers, once they have become acquainted with the museum’s internationally unparalleled rich collection, to select an object or ensemble of objects that inspires their own work, and to create something of their own design that reflects upon it. The design object(s) born from the inspiration of the museum’s collection will also become a part of the collection, which will also provide the opportunity for further relations and exhibitions.

The series was launched in 2018 with the exhibition of Artista Studio, in the framework of which the museum’s collection was enriched with three unique Artista outfits and their matching accessories. The second exhibitor of the series was Polish designer Maria Jeglińska, who took as her source of inspiration an armchair designed by Sándor Mikó in 1969. The armchair was a part of the furnishings of the You + Me espresso bar. Jeglińska designed moveable walls for the exhibition. Milliner Valéria Fazekas selected two vases from the museum’s collection: one produced in the Zsolnay Factory and one from the Drasche Factory, designing several hat collections upon their inspiration. The fourth artist in the series is Dechem Studio from Prague, one of the most recognised representatives of Czech contemporary glass art. The studio’s designers, Michaela Tomišková and Jakub Janďourek, selected a book with a unique binding from the book art collection of the museum, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. In the second half of the 1930s, Károly Grill’s book publishing house in Budapest produced a unique binding from goatskin and marbled paper endpapers for the volume originally published in Paris in 1930. The fifth exhibitors of the series, the Romani Design chose a total of six art objects from the collections of the museum. These are all devotional pictures depicting either the Virgin Mary or other female saints, which provided the inspiration for the designers to create six enchantingly richly patterned women’s garments and coordinated accessories.

The sixth participant of the In Circulation exhibition series of the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest is Buliash Todaeva, a firm believer and representative of the sustainable design approach. It is important for her to re-think the waste that threatens our environment as base material, and to design objects aligned with this school of thought already from the first phase of design, and for the object in progress to place the smallest possible burden on the environment. She always takes into account how large an ecological footprint the object will have. From a sociological perspective, she also tries to re-think the problems caused by the design and fashion industries. With her work, she creates objects that – with their new technologies and visual devices, as well as the fact that they are produced in small-scale production – carry not only a regional identity, but also a social impact. Upon our invitation, Buliash Todaeva selected three objects from the collections of the Museum of Applied Arts: a small, red patent leather purse that was made circa 1970, as well as an armchair and table from the five-piece Centaur furniture set produced in 1985 by István Szilvássy.

The exhibitions of the artefacts of Artista Studio and Romani Design Studio were supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary. The work of Maria Jeglińska was presented jointly by the Museum of Applied Arts and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the events of Polska 100 – the centenary of the restoration of Polish independence – and as part of the NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2022 programme. It is sponsored by the Ministry of the Cultural and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, and by the Polish Institute, Budapest. The project of DECHEM Studio was realised thanks to the curatorial research trips organised by the Czech Centres. We wish to express special thanks for the support of the Hungarian Institute in Prague.