Making Tolerance Visible - World-Famous Travelling Poster Exhibition at MOME

Date: 2023.03.31
How can graphic design illustrate tolerance? Born in Bosnia and currently living and working in New York, Mirko Ilić launched the Tolerance Poster Show six years ago, which is open to the public until April 2 in the MOME Ground.

The material—comprised of the works of the profession’s elite and so far having travelled to 40 countries—features the works of Paula Scher, Ed Fella, Seymour Chwast, Götz Gramlich, Erich Brechbühl and Milton Glaser, as well as some Hungarian artists.

The topic of tolerance is more relevant than ever. Therefore, curator Ilić asked the world’s graphic designers to visualise the concept. The initiative targeting social betterment resulted in a collection of 200 posters created by big names in international design, which now tours the world as a travelling exhibition. So far, the project has featured in as many as 158 exhibitions, and has now come to Budapest. 

A collection of the posters can be viewed—unconventionally—installed onto the floor, so visitors may walk around them. 

The first stops of the poster exhibition were Ljubljana, Sarajevo and Belgrade in 2017, later followed by Madrid, Johannesburg, Jakarta, Helsinki, New York, Bayreuth and several other cities all around the world. 

At the latest stops of the exhibition, local graphic designers and illustrators also joined in with their works. From Budapest, new entrants are the works of teachers of the MOME Graphic Design programme: Dóra Balla DLA habil. associate professor and Gyula Molnár professor emeritus, as well as István Orosz Kossuth Award-winning graphic artist and Anna Korolovszky graphic designer. 

The curator of the Hungarian Section was Péter Bence Simon. Together with Ilić, the Budapest exhibition grand opening on March 28 was held by Balázs Vargha habil. associate professor and director of the MOME Media Institute. The founder and curator of the Tolerance Poster Show also runs a New York studio, and is a professor of the School of Visual Arts. Many of Ilić’s works, publications, image designs and posters have been published in the USA.

His art can be found in the collection of MoMA and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and he has recently published his second book. On March 28 at 18:00, the world-famous graphic designer delivered a lecture titled ‘Design Activism’ to a full-house audience at the MOME Auditorium, and held several workshops for MOME students.

Open to the public until April 2.

Venue: H-1121 Budapest, Zugligeti út 9-25 / MOME Ground

Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/3kFSiGnI8 

Sponsor: Global Voices at MOME, the Foundation for Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.

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