PARALLEL ART FOUNDATION
Bianka Dobó
28 m²
2026.10.21.
– 11.29.
PUCCS
Contemporary, Budapest
Flag-raising: 21 October 2026, 18:00
Contributors: József Mélyi, Bianka Dobó
Standing in front of the gallery’s window, the viewer finds himself facing a single flag measuring 4 m by 7 m. The title refers to the flag’s 28-square-meter surface area, which is the same as that of the national flag in Kossuth Square. Over the past twenty years, increasingly large-scale flags have appeared in public spaces throughout Hungary as instruments of state and national representation. Building on this, the work examines the flag’s symbolic and physical presence and its gesture of occupying space. Placing the flag from Kossuth Square in a window space can also be interpreted as a horizontal reimagining of vertical state representation. By juxtaposing the physical boundaries of the flag and the exhibition space, the relationship between national and personal space becomes the focus of the investigation: how and to what extent we can feel ourselves to be part of the nation—or, conversely, excluded from it. The monumental size of the flag in the confined exhibition space in and of itself illustrates the phenomenon of politics seeping into micro-communities and conveys the resulting claustrophobia, which is both spatial and psychological. The work explores how the flag — which represents, occupies, and demarcates boundaries — can transform from a sign of belonging to a community into a symbol of the occupation of space, or even a tool of exclusion.
The central theme of Bianka Dobó’s research and artistic practice is the relationship between public artworks, monuments and their surroundings; changes in the built environment; and the power and social implications of practices relating to public space planning and the politics of memory. In her installations, paintings, graphic works and sculptures, she works with a variety of materials. Her working method is characterised by continuous experimentation. She graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2008/2009 with degrees in Printmaking and Visual Arts Education, where, in 2024, she obtained a PhD as well. She is currently a lecturer at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.
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On view 0-24h
PUCCS Contemporary Art, 1084 Budapest, Víg u. 22.
Organised by P arallel Art Foundation
Curator: Gábor Pintér