Research Centre
The Kovasznai Research Centre was launched by Gyorgy Kovasznai’s daughter in the early 2000s and has since worked to preserve and promote Kovasznai’s oeuvre. After its initial focus on cataloguing, restoring and digitalising all aspects of Kovasznai’s estate (paintings, drawings, films, and writings), the Research Centre now seeks opportunities to present the oeuvre to the international fine art scene. As Kovasznai had no opportunity to exhibit his work during his lifetime, and his films had only been accessible in cinemas for very limited periods of time, the first stage of the Research Centre’s work was to establish Kovasznai’s crucial role within the history of Hungarian contemporary art.
In 2010 the first ever Kovasznai retrospective took over an entire wing of the Hungarian National Gallery to critical and public acclaim, accompanied by a monograph published by the Research Centre.
In 2011, the Research Centre hosted a joint exhibition of South African artist William Kentridge and Gyorgy Kovasznai at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, which featured installation-based animated films by both artists. Later in the same year a Kovasznai exhibition was held at the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin in Germany.
Between October 2012 - February 2013 the Deutsches Historisches Museum of Berlin hosted an exhibition titled “The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945”, featuring one of Kovasznai’s films alongside works by Fernand Léger, Damien Hirst, Tadeusz Kantor, Richard Hamilton, Gerhard Richter and Boris Christo. The exhibition later set out on a journey to Milan, Tallin and Krakow to last until January 2014.
At the beginning of 2016 the Research Centre introduced Gyorgy Kovasznai to the British fine art scene via a comprehensive solo exhibition at the Somerset House in London. The event was a major success both with the academic audience and the general public, and it opened up doors for the international promotion of Kovasznai's oeuvre. In November 2016 Kovasznai's “Ca Ira” pictures were exhibited alongside works by William Kentridge as part of the "Creative Fury" show in London's Clerkenwell Gallery and his short film "The memory of the summer of '74" was included in the program of Art Basel Miami Beach 2016. Ever since, Kovasznai's animation films have been widely featured in the programmes of film festivals around the world, including Queensland Film Festival (Australia), Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation (US), Manchester Film Festival (UK), Fest Anča International Animation Festival (Slovakia), Animafest Zagreb (Croatia), ELAC International Animation Festival (US), Melbourne International Animation Festival (Australia), Imaginaria Festival (Italy), Fantoche International Animation Film Festival (Switzerland), Filmtettfeszt (Romania), Anifilm Liberec (Czech Republic), GIRAF Fesival of Independent Animation (Canada), GoEast Film Festival (Germany), KAFF (Hungary), Primanima (Hungary), Budapest Classics Film Marathon.
Since 2018 the Ybl Creative House Buda has been the home of a permanent Kovasznai exhibition in Hungary and Kovasznai’s works continue to be featured in shows of acclaimed international institutions such as the Wende Museum (California, USA), Walker Art Center (Minnesota, USA), Rugogyar Gallery (Budapest, Hungary), Ferenczy Museum Center (Szentendre, Hungary), Budapest History Museum (Hungary), Ludwig Múzem (Budapest), METU Galéria (Budapest) and the Hungarian National Gallery.
At the beginning of 2021 Kovasznai's feature film "Bubble bath" was restored and digitized as part of the “Season of Classic Films” initiative of ACE (Association des Cinémathèques Européennes), with the support of Creative Europe and the Hungarian National Film Archive and was featured in the Annecy International Film Festival's Classics program in June 2021. 41 years after its original release, "Bubble bath" was back in Hungarian cinemas for the summer of 2021 and was released on streaming service Filmio.hu later in the year. In August 2022 "Bubble Bath" was released globally via streaming service MUBI and from October 2023 the film was released on Arte TV for European audiences.
