In addition to the exhibitons and diverse events taking place in Budapest in May-June 2025, thanks to various international partnerships our programs will continue in several European cities throughout the upcoming year.
OFF-Biennale and EVA International jointly funded the new works of two Hungarian artists – Gideon Horváth and the Gypsy Criminals – and, as part of the collaboration, presented them at both biennials.
Gideon Horváth's installation The Most Dangerous Person offers a glimpse into the nearly invisible lives and daily struggles of sexual minorities living outside Hungary's capital, Budapest. The work gives voice to a group that is systemically stigmatized within the current right-wing, populist political climate. In this way, the artist questions who, in systems built on exclusion and the visceral feeling of fear, truly is the most dangerous person.
The narratives shared by working-class interviewees are especially unsettling, as they align with neither conservative frameworks nor the liberal norms often articulated in urban discourse. These radically personal microhistories, while recounting individual strategies of survival, also confront the fundamental contradictions of human existence—thus challenging polarized and ideological worldviews.
Founded in 2024, the Budapest-based artist group Gypsy Criminals (1) presents itself as a Dadaist project that critically and satirically engages with anti-Roma sentiment (anti-Ziganism) and xenophobia, while exposing the often hypocritical stance of the art world toward these issues. Employing the method of over-identification with stereotypes, the members of the collective—Hunor MC Lakatos, Count Horthy Rolex Leonidas of Nagybánya, and Junior Hades, a pint-sized dwarf dog—construct a sharply critical narrative infused with humor and irony. As they proclaim, they use the term gypsy criminal provocatively because they “want to conquer it from the narrative of the far right.
On the occasion of the OFF-Biennale, Gypsy Criminals present a new series centered on the theme of “protecting” Hungarians and Hungarian land. The series includes images portraying Gypsy criminals as superheroes—wearing capes and balaclavas (rather than traditional masks), referencing both heroic iconography and associations with criminality. Drawing inspiration from pop culture figures such as Captain America, these imagined heroes soar above the landscape, accompanied by twisted, subversive versions of government propaganda slogans. In this context, it is the Gypsy Criminals who protect Hungarians from all the dangers that propaganda seeks to evoke and exploit.
(1) “Gypsy crime” (cigánybűnözés) was a term used in criminology during the Kádár era in Hungary. In contemporary public discourse, it carries a discriminatory and racist connotation, often employed by the extreme right.
The 41st EVA International's Guest Programme is curated by Eszter Szakács who is, among others, the member of OFF-Biennale's Strategical Board and co-curator of former OFF-Biennale editions. Titled It Takes a Village, the programme borrows from the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” to focus on ideas of collaborative partnership, social justice and historical repair.
