Intro - SLOW LIFE.

The idea of the exhibition Slow Life. Radical Practices of the Everyday was conceived almost two years ago and the Ludwig Museum’s curatorial team has been working on the preparation and implementation of the exhibition for months. At the time, we could not have guessed that with the nearly five-month exhibition and program series scheduled for April 2020, we would be dealing with topics that would become imminently close and pressing as a result of the global Covid-19 epidemic caused by the coronavirus. ‘Slow-life’ has all of a sudden become an everyday reality, a forced way of life in the global world.

As we put it in the introduction to the exhibition, “The slow approach represents a need to rethink existing structures and reorganize established practices in the fields of society, economy and everyday life alike. Its essence can be best expressed by consciousness and a critical attitude, from ethical consumption and voluntary simplicity to the concept of a no-growth economy”.

The “Quarantine of consumption”, the Stay Home Movement, the decline in air travel, the slowing economy are just some of the unexpected consequences of the virus, which ruthlessly point to the positive effects of slower life, but also pose enormous challenges to humanity.

The current situation also affects the preparation and implementation of the exhibition, as well as the opening event and the form of the planned programs. As soon as circumstances allow, the exhibition will be completed, but the opening scheduled for April 8 will be postponed.

We will do our best to compensate our visitors with an intensive online presence and provide detailed content about the background of the exhibition, the workflow, the artists involved in the project and the museum’s everyday life.

About the exhibition

Slow Life. Radical Practices of the Everyday is a group exhibition with an international scope, a commitment that reflects on today’s pressing global issues. The current logic of our world, the existing social & economic system and the market-consumer culture have caused serious environmental problems. The approach they are based upon is in crisis, and current practices cannot provide real solutions to excessive waste production and overconsumption, and to keep the exploitation of natural resources under control.

The slow approach represents a need to rethink existing structures and reorganize established practices in the fields of society, economy and everyday life alike. Its essence can be best expressed by consciousness and critical attitude, which bring forth more and more possible alternatives, from permaculture farming to zero-waste household, from voluntary simplicity to the concept of a no-growth economy.

The beginnings of the Slow Revolution date back to the 1980s, to the protest against fast-food restaurants, which drew attention to the importance of healthy, quality food from local source. Carlo Petrini’s gastronomic initiative has expanded into a global movement over the decades, spanning many areas from work to travel and from design to media consumption. However, the exhibition does not focus on the ‘slow living’ movements so popular today, some of which limit their activities to offering new products and services for sale. Rather, it presents alternative practices, everyday “revolutions”, gentle or even radical approaches that challenge the existing growth- and profit-oriented system, show a way out of the consumption spiral, or represent an attitude based on the momentum instead of a busy life-style. The broad spectrum of genres on display includes artworks based on critical thinking, while others offer utopic models for future challenges, or encourage us to change our art consumption habits, as well as the clichés of perception and reception in connection with art.

The aim of the exhibition is to highlight the environmental impacts and exploitative practices that have led to the current global environmental, economic and social problems. Our other main objective is to provide a broader platform for artistic positions, which emphasize sustainability and offer alternative lifestyles.

Virtual tour in the exhibition:

The exhibition was on display in Liszt Institut in Brussels and the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz.

The exhibition is organized by the curatorial team of the Ludwig Museum. (Csizek Petra, Jan Elantkowski, Készman József, Petró Zsuzska, Popovics Viktória, Üveges Krisztina)

Exhibiting artists: