Poems of Unrest

Artists: Larry Achiampong, Kincső Bede, Mária Berhidi, Boglárka Dankó, Anchan/Anna Daučíková, Dóra Galyas Denerak, Andrea Éva Győri, Róza El-Hassan, Robert Gabris, Flo Kasearu, Szonja Dorottya Koltay, Anikó Loránt, Ingela Ihrman, Cal Kowal & Charlotte Moorman, Open Group, Paula Rego, Katarina Šević

Poems of Unrest is an international group exhibition based on the fifth edition of the OFF-Biennale Budapest.

As the biggest independent art institution in Hungary since its founding in 2015, OFF-Biennale aims to strengthen the country’s independent art scene and to contribute to public discourse on social, political, and environmental issues, with the intention of promoting a culture of democracy through art.

OFF 2025 addressed questions of safety and security. Right-wing ideologues and politicians seem to be capitalizing on these existential concerns by reducing them to notions of militarization, and fearmongering, while attempting to scapegoat minorities and people with migratory backgrounds.

In this climate, Poems of Unrest seeks to contribute to the discourse surrounding safety and security by introducing new approaches and techniques for collective productivity and imagination to help us navigate the present.

Our fate, as social beings, is inextricably linked to the world around us. But how can we build and sustain meaningful connections, develop inclusive political and social agendas, amplify often unheard voices, and foster resilience and cooperation in times of insecurity?

Drawing on diverse experiences, the Oldenburg edition of the Poems of Unrest exhibition offers profound and personal perspectives, capturing emotional complexities and revisiting the notion of safety within the family and in wider society from a feminist perspective. Through projects in which poetry manifests in many forms, the idea of care and safety is centered.

The selected works engage with the theme of security by amplifying interconnected issues such as patriarchal oppression, systemic inequality, loss of political agency, tribalization, the impact of armed conflicts, domestic violence, bodily autonomy, and feminist resistance.

The exhibition draws on a wealth of knowledge and civic practices to build alliances and foster solidarity, forgiveness, compassion, and meaningful ways of living together.

Curated by Katalin Székely and Edit Molnár.