Debrecen-Pairidaeza I Levente Vigh’s Everyday Cívis Scenes of Life
2025. Apr. 17. - 2025. Jun. 07.
The photo exhibition opening at MODEM Project Space on 17 April will give a sensual insight into the interiors and everyday life of the inhabitants of the typical residential buildings, the ‘cívis’ houses, surrounded by high walls and shrouded in mystery, which still dominate the cityscape of Debrecen.
According to photographic and archival research, the systematic exploration of the interiors of the ‘cívis’ houses, which are considered essentially undocumented, has only begun in recent years: the photographs of Levente Vigh shown in this exhibition were taken during the site visits of a continuation of a project started by Attila Harangi and Viktor Löki in 2019, which already for the second time aimed to create an album that presents the history of the ‘cívis’ houses and their inhabitants primarily in the context of architecture and urban history. The selection of images, put on display and edited into a photo book curated by Szabolcs Süli-Zakar, focus on everyday moments that allow us to see the cultural-anthropological context, the individual ways of using unique living spaces and the particular and unique materialities, rather than on architectural-heritage aspects.
This is an attempt to alleviate the strangeness surrounding the ‘cívis’ houses without removing their mystique: the images show that these buildings, created according to the wishes of the former ‘cívis’ lifestyle and mentality, are not relics of a bygone past, but very much alive, unique living spaces that can be adapted to contemporary needs in specific ways. Behind the bulging façades we can find charming human-scale dwellings, profane gardens of Eden, strange oases; wagon gates, thick walls with extensive barrel
vaults built onto vast interlocking basement systems, conceal the special inhabitants who make these spaces their homes.
Thus, what the personal and intimate scenes in the photographs bring up close can also become a perspective: Debrecen-Pairidaeza is part of a series of exhibitions and events at MODEM that question the very nature of the elusive, constantly revisited identity formation that is ‘Debreceness’.
Exhibiting photographer:
Levente Vigh
Curator:
Szabolcs Süli-Zakar