The AnnART International Performance Festival (1990–1999) was held ten times in total in the vicinity of Lake Saint Anne, formed in one of the volcanic craters of the Csomád Mountains in Transylvania. The aim of the AnnART Archive is to digitize the documentation of some 200 art events by nearly 150 Romanian, Hungarian, and international artists, as well as the organizational processes behind them, and to shed light on the institutional historical context. All of this content will be processed in a publicly accessible digital archive, which will provide a research infrastructure for studying contemporary art phenomena, works and creative ideas created in a given historical context, and related public discourses.
The wave of performance art that unfolded in Central and Eastern European visual art was organically linked to an emotionally charged period. The regime change of 1989 made it possible to reclaim public space, which, with the end of censorship, could be filled with new content, forms of expression, and opportunities for collaboration.
The AnnART documentation, compiled by visual artist Gusztáv Ütő, the festival’s main organizer, offers a rich collection that provides an opportunity for a critical re-evaluation of the period following the fall of state socialism, both for the professional community organized around the festival and for the wider public. The archiving project is key to preserving the cultural history of the region and understanding the self-organization efforts of civil society, which is gradually connecting to an international network. Through the processing of performance and ephemeral art forms, the project serves to revive the intellectual heritage of the community.
During the lecture, Ágnes Evelin Kispál, Attila Kispál, and Szilárd Miklós, curators of the archive project, will report on the project’s objectives, methodological challenges, and achievements to date, and will present video and image material from the archive in the following locations:
October 30, 2025 // 5:00 p.m. / It – a space for it, Bolintineanu street, No. 1, ELBA building, Timișoara
November 5, 2025 // 8:00 p.m. / MKE Intermedia Department, Kmety György Street 27, Budapest, Hungary
November 11, 2025 // 6:00 pm / Centrul Artelor Vizuale Multimedia, Biserica Enei street 16, Bucharest
AnnART Archive is a project initiated by MAGMA Contemporary Medium Association in partnership with the Székely National Museum in Sfântu Gheorghe, and developed in collaboration with the ETNA Foundation.
Partners:
Hungarian University of Fine Arts, INTERMEDIA DEPARTMENT, Budapest;
University of Arts Târgu Mureș; PTE Deaprtment of Arts Sfântu Gheorghe; SALONUL DE PROIECTE Association, Bucharest; SIMULTAN Association, Timișoara; Art High School Plugor Sándor, Sfântu Gheorghe
Sepsi TeleTár – Telecommunication Heritage of Szeklerland Association, Sfântu Gheorghe
Co-founded by: AFCN – The Administration of the National Cultural Fund / The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not to be held responsible for the content of the project, nor for the ways in which the results of the project might be used. Those are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the grant.
Sponsors: Covasna County Council, Municipality’s Council of Sfântu Gheorghe, Communitas Foundation, ekonoled
Media Partners: sepsiszentgyörgy.info, Háromszék, transtelex.ro, Erdély TV, Marosvásárhelyi Rádió
