Launched in 2019, the Art is Business Awards recognizes companies, individuals, and institutions that successfully bridge the worlds of business and the arts. Their goal is to create a platform for shared value creation and inspiring cooperation between the two sectors.

Hosted in the newly constructed Vitrum building of the Liget Center, the exhibition was built around two main components. It presented the historical and architectural importance of the former headquarters of MÉMOSZ (the National Union of Construction Workers of Hungary) – today the heritage-protected Classic and Auditorium building complex – highlighting its status as an icon of Hungarian modernism. In the installation space, characteristic elements of the buildings – pillars, facade motifs, and various unique structural solutions – were placed in a new context, offering insight into the centuries-old inspirations behind modernist architecture.

The complex is a product of the years following World War II, when the original designers were given free rein in terms of form and were thus able to showcase the full range of modernist architecture. This period holds a special place in the history of Hungarian architecture, which is why the profession continues to engage with the project to this day. The organizers therefore considered it important to pay tribute to the original architects – György Szrogh, Lajos Gádoros, Imre Perényi, Károly Perczel, and Gábor Preisich – by presenting a part of their legacy within the exhibition.

The exhibition was further enriched by artworks from the private collection of Ferenc Szűcs, the late Deputy CEO of WING, which significantly deepened the architectural history and cultural context of the exhibition.

The award-winning event was realized through the coordinated, close collaboration of several contributors as part of the WING Contemporary Art Program. Paradigma Ariadné served as curator for the project and was also the winner of the Art is Business Award in the "ArkForum - Art in Construction" category.

“I believe that as a real estate developer, it is not enough to create modern and economically successful projects: our work also has social and cultural significance. Over the past twenty-five years, WING has played a defining role in shaping Budapest’s cityscape and the modern Hungarian real estate market – this is both a responsibility and a commitment to values. A city is truly lovable when it preserves its past while not being afraid to look toward the future. With the Modernism in pieces exhibition, we wanted to show that a city’s past and future are mutually reinforcing values that we can build upon both as responsible developers and as residents,” said Noah Steinberg, Chairman and CEO of WING.

WING’s ars poetica – “We build a livable future!” – defines not only its property developments but also the company’s social and cultural mission. Over its more than 25-year history, the company has completed numerous developments in which architecture, aesthetics, and art are organically intertwined. WING's real estate developments shape Budapest's architectural image. The company aims for its developments to provide inspiring, value-creating environments for all who use or experience them: employees, residents, locals and more broadly city dwellers and tourists alike.