Dóra Maurer – SUMUS – We Are Together

In light of de Appel's current interest in how we collaborate, de Appel is delighted to present Dóra Maurer–SUMUS–We Are Together, curated by Eszter Szakács. The exhibition presents archival materials and experimental film works by artist Dóra Maurer (1937) some of which she labelled as SUMUS, with the aim to signify the self-financed/DIY and collaborative aspect of her filmmaking. 

SUMUS (We Are Together) was an informal group, a quasi-institution, established and led by artists Dóra Maurer and Tibor Gáyor between the 1970s and 1980s. SUMUS, in Hungary and internationally, in collaboration with artists, art historians, and art institutions, organised exhibitions, produced publications and films, and in general invigorated the avantgard-underground artistic milieu that had limited possibilities to exhibit in Hungary and that had scarce opportunities for international exchange.

Through their personal lives, Gáyor and Maurer acquired a double, Hungarian-Austrian residency, which in many ways enabled traversing the Iron Curtain. Expanding on and sharing their in-between position, Maurer and Gáyor as SUMUS–in lieu of state cultural policy–self-organised the otherwise not cultivated international exchange of Hungarian and Eastern European underground artists, generated and shared knowledge about Eastern European artists and artworks, and invited Western European artists and artworks to Hungary.

Through archival materials, the exhibition presents the story of SUMUS exhibition activities, with a special focus on their organising activities in the Netherlands. A selection of Dóra Maurer’s experimental films is also on display: those she made as SUMUS and those she made in collaboration with institutions or as a part of an initiative.

Dóra Maurer is one of the most significant artists in Hungary. She is also well-known as an art educator, yet her role as an art organiser and curator has rarely been foregrounded. Throughout her career, Maurer has invested in organising art, not as an expansion of her artistic practice, but as something in addition to it.

Looking at the activities of SUMUS today, several relevant topics arise, such as the ways in which an informal art infrastructure sustained by committed people, and in collaboration with various individuals and institutions, is able to create autonomous zones. The exhibition also features a selection of archival materials from de Appel archive in relation to the famous 1979 de Appel exhibition Works and Words, which presented various artists and artworks from Eastern Europe, including works by Dóra Maurer. Reexamining the Works and Words exhibition from the perspective of SUMUS activities also poses questions about the still existing difficulties in exchanging between the different parts of Europe.

In memoriam Tibor Gáyor (1929–2023). 

See more: https://www.deappel.nl/en/archive/events/1196-dra-maurer-sumus-we-are-together