Vanda Sárai

Pink abstract human bust against blue background with search bar and text "#IFeelSeen" plus date range.

#IFeelSeen, 2021, graphic designer Barbara Katona © Vanda Sárai

Large open exhibition space with raw concrete ceiling and white walls displaying several colorful abstract paintings.

Dávid Biró, I'M AFRAID I CAN DO THAT, exhibition view, 2023

Art gallery with a white wall displaying a grid of photographs and a freestanding metal structure with a screen and a white sign on a concrete floor.

Dávid Biró, I'M AFRAID I CAN DO THAT, exhibition view, 2023

Exhibition room with dark blue walls, green carpet strips on the floor and wall, and several sculptural objects featuring floral and geometric patterns.

Emese Kádár, NOT_FOUND, exhibition view, 2024 © Zsuzsi Simon

Exhibition space with several abstract artworks on walls and floor including a yellow patterned piece on the floor, a large wall painting with human figures, and two round greenish and beige artworks on the wall.

Zsófia Sivák, WHAT THE RUG, exhibition view, 2023

Key Facts

Nationality: Hungary
Area: Curator, Theory
Place of residence: Budapest
Recommending Institution: tranzit.org/ERSTE Stiftung
Period: May - June 2025
Links: @saraivanda

Vanda Sárai (b. 1990) is a Budapest-based independent curator, art writer and researcher. She completed her studies in Budapest and Jena, and is currently working on her PhD at Eötvös Loránd University, focusing on the effects of attention economy and digital culture on contemporary art and its institutional system. She is a guest lecturer at the Art and Design Department of Metropolitan University Budapest.

She was a member of the curatorial collective, Teleport Gallery (2016-2018). As a curator, she won the Esterházy Art Dating Prize and the MODEM Prize for Young Curators. Her most notable shows were: Time of Our Lives (co-curated with Tamás Don and Ferenc Margl), MODEM (2018); #IFeelSeen, MODEM (2021); WHAT THE RUG? Carpets in Hungarian contemporary art, 1111 (2023); I’m Afraid I Can Do That, TORULA (2023); Kádár Emese: NOT_FOUND, The Space Gallery (2024).

Between 2017 – 2021, she worked in the editorial team of Műértő. In 2022 – 2023, she was the gallery manager of the non-profit art space 1111. She is a member of AICA Hungary.

Project info

In 2025, Vanda Sárai completes her doctoral thesis at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. In her dissertation, she is investigating the impact of the attention economy and digital culture on contemporary artistic practices. During her residency at MQ, she would like to take an overarching look at her previous research findings and gain new impetus for their further development.
She plans to engage with the local art scene and exchange ideas with artists, theorists and curators who are working on similar issues. The aim is to initiate regional collaborations in the field of research on digital culture - with a focus on how this culture influences us individually, what role it plays in pop culture and how it intertwines with high culture - especially contemporary art.
During her stay, Vanda Sárai would also like to explore the possibility of founding an organisation specialising in research on digital culture and contemporary art with a regional focus - and find potential partners in Vienna to further develop the concept.