Knowledge in Motion pays tribute to the work of László Moholy-Nagy

The campaign to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of László Moholy-Nagy, organized by MOME with the help of sponsors, started last summer with a film screening and ended this summer with a publication. Created with graphic design by Nóra Kaszanyi, the publication is not only a summary of the program but also a contemporary appreciation of the intellectual heritage of Moholy-Nagy.

Beginning in July 2020, for one year, the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design celebrated the 125th anniversary of the birth of its namesake, László Moholy-Nagy, with a unique campaign. The institution owes more than its name to this multitalented creator: László Moholy-Nagy came up with innovative practices and ideas in sculpture, art, design, and art education, and his spirit is still preserved in the work of the university’s faculty and students. For example, to mark the anniversary, the Moholy-Nagy 125 reportage film, the 125-second Moholymotion animation produced by HEN Animation, a website summarising the documentaries, a podcast series, and finally, this summer, the Knowledge in Motion publication were also created.

Edited by József Fülöp, Tamás Kollarik, and Zsuzsanna Vincze, Knowledge in Motion is a Hungarian-English book where we can find the selected, edited versions of the podcast discussions, and read about the 40-year history of MOME Anim, as well as the life and work of László Moholy-Nagy. The title paraphrases Moholy-Nagy’s famous posthumous work, Vision in Motion, long used as a textbook in design and art higher education. Nóra Kaszanyi created the graphic design of the publication.

“When designing the book, I was given nearly complete freedom, but I had to adapt to the content and visually tie the publication together. The Moholy legacy and the Bauhaus spirit served as an excellent basis for this, by the way; still, the main inspiration came from the animated short film Moholymotion, a key element of the »Light of the Future« campaign. I tried to create the character of the cover by using the vibrant blue color appearing in this, the light grey background, and the geometric shapes, and make it more special by using intaglio printing,” says Nóra.

The cover and back cover of the bilingual book is the same—readers can flip through the Hungarian content on one side and the English content on the other.

Like the memorial series, the publication is a collaboration between MOME, the Hungarian Academy of Arts, the National Film Institute Hungary, the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, and the Uránia National Film Theatre. The sponsors are featured in several interviews; thus, the book, which covers primarily cinematographic themes, includes, for example, the role of experimental films in film art, the intellectual property rights in 21st-century art education, and an interview with the multiple Emmy Award-winning producer and director Gábor Csupó.

The book was produced in 1200 copies, unavailable in shops, and distributed only by request or direct mail.

Moholy-Nagy 125 | Web
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