Concept artist Ilona Nemeth invokes public participation at Art on Lake

"Floating Gardens, Private Islands" by Ilona Nemeth at Art on Lake Photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

“For rent – 2 small gardens that need tending – each garden is fully planted and 12 square meters in area – on the City Park Lake between 22 May 2011 and 4 September 2011. Applications may be made before 1 April 2011 (e-mail address).”

Before installed, Ilona Nemeth´s “Floating Gardens, Private Islands” evoked public interaction.

Without dedicated and reliable cultivators her floating work(s) at Art on Lake on City Park Lake in Budapest would die, requiring a new title.

Nemeth, among 25 European contemporary sculptures and concept artists whose works are planted in Art on Lake from 22 May – 4 September 2011, could be called a kind of guerrilla art gardener.

Serving nature with her works is a common theme.

“Floating Gardens” inspired at least one of the curators of Art on Lake— Krisztina Jerger, Dr. Alexander Tolnay or Peter Fitz--to write in the show´s earlier literature:

“The work propounds the issues of dispossession, of personal private space, of areas kept under control and of the sense of security.”

Curators also emphasized the newspaper advert as “guerrilla gardening” and public art.

Art on Lake's official catalogue, released earlier this month, states: 

“The “Floating Gardens” are in the tradition of Ilona Nemeth´s public art, in which she has long investigated the active interaction between a work and its viewers, and the dialogue between nature and society.”

Cultivators regularly keeping Nemeth´s work alive: Ferenc Kacser, Endre Raffay, Marta Gyuricza, Emese Stavnicki and Irima Joo.

Nemek, age 48, also enjoys collecting unused architectural objects and creating installations as she did with those collected in her city of birth, Dunajska Streda, Slovakia.

A member of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia earned her arts degrees from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts and Hungarian College of Applied Art.

She has taught and lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and the academy of her undergraduate and graduate work in Budapest.

Nemeth has exhibited widely in the United States and Europe, also South Korea and has received awards from the United States, Germany, Austria and France.

"Art on Lake" 25-European Union contemporary artists' show in Budapest Photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

ArtTraveler notes:

After living at the Hotel Queen Mary in Budapest (3.5 stars), I heartily recommend it: old on the outside, otherwise totally modern (23 rooms); 

The owner and staff are affable and speak English and German. Tel: 0036-1-413-3510; www.hotelqueenmary.hu; info@hotelqueenmary.hu.

Visit Andalusia for a walking holiday or week-long sculpture or mosaics workshop. 

See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

"Spanish Life Stilled," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2009)

You may reach me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 915 067 703 or from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.