QR code – How Family Slides Become Public History

In the 1970s and 80s, a father in Budapest meticulously documented his sons Gyuri and Attila’s lives on film, converting the photos into slides with detailed date records. With changing technology, the slides became obsolete, and the father digitized them, discarding the originals. Decades later, architect and artist Gergely Barcza discovered old slides still encased in second-hand frames, sparking his passion for collecting them. A friend gifted him a trove of slides depicting Gyuri and Attila’s family life. Barcza tracked down the family and gained permission to use the photos in a public exhibition, creating a massive photomontage reflecting Hungarian society. The artwork, a giant QR code formed by the slides, directs viewers to Gyuri and Attila’s online presence. The work will be permanently exhibited at the OSA Archivum’s Goldberger House in Budapest.

An unveiling event will feature the artist’s introduction and commentary by Edit Barta, an aesthete and secretary of the Studio of Young Photographers, Hungary. Other speakers: curator Adrienn Kácsor and Iván Székely (OSA).

The video recording of this event is available on OSA’s YouTube Channel.