Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he was invited to Austria, where from 1990 to 2001 he was director of the Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna, where he developed one of the largest and most complex collections of Contemporary art of the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Europe, to which he dedicates two great exhibitions: Reduktivismus - Abstraktion in Polen, Tschechoslowakei, Ungarn (Vienna, 1992), Aspects, positions: Fifty years of art in Central Europe (Vienna, Barcelona, Southampton 1999).
In 1995, he was art director of the Triennial of Sculpture Fellbach, Germany where he presented the show Europe – Asia, with forty artists from Asian countries. In 1999, he curated the exhibition 50 Years of Art in Central Europe 1949-1999 (Vienna, Budapest, Southampton) and the show La Casa, il Corpo, il Cuore – Construction of Identities (Vienna, Prague). In 2001, he opened the new contemporary art museum MUMOK, Vienna.
1996 Enver Hadžiomerspahić invited Lorand Hegyi to work at the project Ars Aevi , which was founded in 1992 during wartime. Through donations a great collection of contemporary art was created in Sarajevo. Lorand Hegyi organised about 200 donations from international artists for the collection, which he presented in Vienna and Sarajevo. Furthermore he curated several exhibitions in Sarajevo.
From 2003 to 2016 he was director of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint-Etienne. He emphasized in his exhibition and acquisition program a new global regard on contemporary art which included art from Central and East Europe as well, as contemporary art from Asia. He developed the collection of the tendencies of the 70’s and 80’s both from USA and Global Europe as well, as the new tendencies in Asian contemporary art. He created the exhibition series of contemporary drawing “Cabinet de Dessin” and a series of thematic exhibitions focusing on an anthropological vision of art like “Domicile – Private/Public” and “Fragile”. Lorand Hegyi systematically presented a lot of great contemporary masters like Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giovanni Anselmo, Günther Uecker, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Nonas, Joel Shapiro, Roman Opalka, Orlan, Bertrand Lavier, Gilbert & George, Anne et Patrick Poirier, Georg Baselitz, Tony Cragg, Peter Halley, Anish Kapoor, etc..
In 2016 he curated the exhibitions “Intriguing Uncertainties - Contemporary Drawing” in Saint-Etienne, the “Challenging Beauty – Italian Art after the 60s” in Beijing and the “Disturbing Narratives” in Singapore. In 2017, he was nominated to Art Director of The Parkview Museum Beijing/Singapore where he created an important collection of contemporary Italian art. In 2017, he curated the first show of the "BRIDGING ASIA/EUROPE" exhibition series in The Parkview Museum Bejing, which presents artists from Asia and Europe in a form of dialogue. In 2017 he curated the exhibition "Anish Kapoor – My Red Homeland" in Saint-Etienne and the show “The Artist’s Voice” in Singapore.
Selected Exhibitions
Eclectic - New Tendencies in Contemporary Hungarian Art (Hungarian National Gallery, 1986)
Dentro il Disegno / Inside the Drawing (Disegno Saluzzo, La Castiglia, Saluzzo, 2019)
Invited public projects and Committee
Lorand Hegyi also co-curated the Biennale de Venice in Italy 1993, Toyama Biennale in Japan 1993, Stuttgart Sculpture Triennale in Germany 1995, Biennale of Valencia in 2003, Poznan Biennale in Poland in 2008. He was the member of many important Art Committee such as the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, Committee of the LUXEMBURG FOUNDATION, Committee of the Salzburg Foundation in Austria, French National Art Committee, France, Committee of La Societe Generale, France etc
Selected publications / books
New Sensibility : Change of Paradigm in Contemporary Art, Magvető Könyvkiadó, Budapest (1983) ISBN 9631400670
Avantgarde and Trans-Avantgarde : Periods of Modern Art, Magvető Könyvkiadó, Budapest (1986) ISBN 9631408752
Selections from the Second Wave of the Hungarian Avant-Garde 1930-1960. New York, NY: Paul Kovesdy Gallery (1988)
Alexandria - Essays on Contemporary Art, Jelenkor Kiadó / Pécs (1995) ISBN 963-676-026-8
Experience and Fiction - Modernism, Avantgarde, Trans-Avantgarde, Jelenkor Irodalmi / Művészeti Kiadó (1991) ISBN 9637770178
