Maleficae - From Bonfires to Online Witchcraft

The various crises of recent years have led to a renewed openness to spirituality, with alternative faiths and cultures offering many people an escape from reality or a way of dealing with the events around them. There is a wide range of spiritual practices among Generation Y and Z, from card reading to the healing powers of crystals and plants to astrology. 

Anyone researching the past and the history of these typically female practices is sure to come across the figure of the witch. Seen from today's perspective (beyond the broom-and-glass character of pop culture), the witch emerges as a representative of non-canonical knowledge, of non-institutionalised practices of healing, and as a pioneering figure of feminism, who did not conform to current social norms and often supported her own female counterparts.

Perhaps the richest source for research into the history of witchcraft is the documentation of witch hunts and trials that took place between the 15th and 18th centuries, which can be found in the work of many artists, including those who come to Hungary as part of the Budapest Gallery's Artists Exchange Programme to explore the long history of persecution in the region.

The exhibition Maleficae - From Bonfires to Online Witchcraft therefore begins with works that recall persecutions, numerous trumped-up charges and death sentences, and which also show healing practices linked to nature and objects with magical powers. Then, through the growing presence of women's spiritual communities, the exhibition moves from contemporary witches to contemporary occult practices to the spiritual world of segregated social groups, complete with magic that permeates online spaces and the interconnections between magic and technology.