MELEE IN THE COMPETITION STORE

video 1’46”, 2024


The store, registered as the first department store in Hungary, was located at the corner of Rákóczi Street and Síp Street in Budapest and was known as the Verseny Áruház (Competition Department Store) from 1949 onwards. Its iconic neon sign features workers pulling the Gutmann untearable trousers in opposite directions.
The press of the time often reported on the battles for products  — according to thesearticles and newsreels ‘pushy housewives’ and ‘peak hours’ awaited customers during sales.
The two male characters in the video re-enact the scene of the neon sign, reminding us of the same shop situations that still occur today — in an age of endless product variations and mass production at its peak — during a clearance sale or Black Friday events. While in the neon sign and some episodes of the socialist newsreels, products underwent various stress tests to demonstrate quality, today, in the age of planned obsolescence, the quality competition is increasingly replaced by the competition of prices and advertisements.

Exhibited in K11 Gallery, Budapest, 2024.02.27-03.21.

Interior photo by Dániel Gaál