Vernissage: June 03, 2023, 7 pm
Exhibition: June 04 – July 30, 2023

Greetings: Dr. Werner Dohmen (Chairman of the Board NAK)
Introduction: Maurice Funken (Director NAK).

“Dying in Aachen can be just as good or bad as anywhere else. However, the associated feeling of indisposition is a cultural-historical novelty. In the past, people died much more quietly. In a society of imperative happiness, however, death disrupts business and is therefore forbidden. (…) I, at any rate, will (…) disappear in a few years (…). Then I – the directing, feeling soul, of the universe – will be someone who has stopped walking the streets.” – Gabor Baksay, Moviebeta, November 2008

Journalist. Critic. Satirist. Musician. Artist. Gabor Baksay passed away on January 20 of this year at the age of 70. NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein dedicates him from June 4 with Aixitus. Gabor Baksay befindet sich in Sicherheit an extensive exhibition.

Baksay was known in Aachen primarily as a long-standing editor, author, graphic designer and illustrator for the Aachen magazine MOVIE. With this exhibition, the Kunstverein would like to honor Baksay as a visual artist and is showing works from various disciplines in an extensive retrospective. Anyone who followed MOVIE, which was initially conceived as a film magazine, could not escape the creativity of its creator: Collages, drawings, comics and texts by the exceptional talent quickly turned the program guide into more than just a cinema magazine. Baksay gathered around him an editorial team in constant flux, which over the years cultivated many a great of the Aachen cultural scene. After its premiere in 1984, the magazine developed visibly over the years into a city magazine that kept a close eye on Aachen’s art and cultural life: for example, praising to scathing exhibition and theater reviews went hand in hand with satirical text attacks on many a grievance in the oh-so-sacred imperial city. In short, MOVIE was required reading for many years. Towards the end of 2016, Baksay left MOVIE behind, but instead continued to publish and communicate in the digital space, still in front of a delighted audience that celebrated him for his satirical output and cultural-political tips.

Aixitus. Gabor Baksay befindet sich in Sicherheit should be understood as a first attempt to approach Gabor Baksay’s work in all its facets. Following on from a first short presentation at the Aachen exhibition space Auge & Welt in February and comprehensively supplementing it, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein is bringing together Baksay’s graphic beginnings, analog and digital drawings and paintings, illustrations, collages, music, sound and video works, film projects, texts, sketches, experiments and unfinished ideas. The exhibition cannot provide a complete survey of Baksay’s artistic oeuvre. The exhibition cannot provide a complete reappraisal of Baksay’s artistic oeuvre, but would like to initiate one.

The program accompanying the exhibition will highlight Baksay’s cinematic work, among other things; here Alex Klotz and Frank Rowenta will lead through the program. In addition, NAK will participate in this year’s Stadtglühen event; the two-day program will take place directly in the Stadtgarten in front of the Kunstverein and will be coordinated with the exhibition. Laudable, though Stadtglühen still sounds “like a gentleman’s scent of Til Schweiger.” In addition, a booklet accompanying the exhibition will be published, which, in a DIY style inspired by early MOVIE issues, will bring together a broad spectrum of Baksay’s works with texts by his companions.

Gabor Baksay studied flute as well as German language and literature and art in Aachen. Musically active as a drummer at an early age, his first bands The Early Birds and The Set Minds were followed by Dom, who released their only record Edge Of Time in 1972. In addition to his journalistic work for MOVIE and later Moviebeta, Baksay continued to be active as a musician, for example with Die Malangrés. Baksay lived and worked in Aachen. And Aachen misses him sorely.

The program accompanying the exhibition:

03 June 2023: Vernissage
15 July 2023, 2 pm: Film matinée I – take 1
22 July 2023, 2 pm: Film matinée II – take 2
26 and 27 July 2023: Stadtglühen at the Stadtgarten
30 July 2023: Finissage

Possible changes in content or dates will be posted here in due time.

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