CLEAN YARD, TIDY HOUSE*
11-27.01.2024
Nádor Galéria, Pécs
What does home mean? A place with deep roots, or the freedom to take the feeling of home with you wherever you go? Or a sign to hang on the side of your house?
The exhibition explores the joys and troubles of looking for a home, by Krisztina Bóka and Anikó Süttő. The moments of root-seeking and the actions that make their dwelling place home. The works in the exhibition reflect on the one side ideal living situations and the lack of them, and on the other side the tension between reverie and reality. On the other hand, there is also the question of conformity, which is not only the adaptation to a physical space but also the fluidity of emotions, thoughts, and belonging.
Then there is nostalgia, those moments that come back to remind us of our childhood. Those, which make the yard clean and the house tidy, those, which make us feel at home.
*„Clean yard, tidy house” is a well-known expression. In the social and political environment of Hungary in the 1950s, the „clean yard, tidy house” movement was started by Dr. Géza Seres, where slogans and posters helped the population to achieve an aesthetic and clean environment and to promote the values set by the state. Participation was possible in several ways. Designated persons in charge went around the municipality and, after a survey, handed over a sign of appreciation, which not everyone could receive. It was a kind of award, with a real prestige value. The idea has not been forgotten and has been revived in recent years in various municipalities, mostly through private initiatives.
curator: Bíborka Emese Szakács
BETWEEN HOMES, 2024
site-specific installation, 100 x 158 cm (5 pcs), 110 g polyester
The project is built from windows in my previous homes. I use the window symbol to create a kind of gateway between different places, countries, and situations. I turn the windows into a fictional space, a room that seems ideal, where all the pieces of my home can meet. Each window frame symbolizes the stories within the walls, stretching from the cherry tree in my parents’ house to Germany. The images are printed on translucent, lightweight nylon fabric and are only fixed on top to float illusion-like, translucently in the space. When installing the images, I place them at different heights, which is a reflection of the actual position of the room. The series consists of several images and I can install more than one depending on the exhibition space.
MADE IN ITALY, 2021
site-specific installation, plaster
In 2019/20 I was an Erasmus+ student in a small Italian town, Macerata. My project during the scholarship was to make negative copies of the streets as a way of preserving the memories. I took the negatives off the surfaces with clay, then I made reproduction moulds and finally, I cast them in plaster. The clay allowed me to capture very fine details of the surfaces as tactile fragments. From these pieces, I am composing a site-specific street installation.
I consider the plaster casts as a kind of souvenir, the most authentic keepsakes of the cities. On the other hand, it was the first time I moved abroad on my own, so it personally symbolizes my life in Italy, and own my search for my own way.
Cities where the moulds were made:
Ancona, Bari, Esanatoglia, Florence, Macerata, Naples, Polignano a mare, Ravenna, Rome, Siena
WHERE THE VALUES COME TOGETHER, 2022
6 min video installation
I come from a village in the north-east of Hungary, which has since become a town. Lowland, three churches, one school, nothing special. My aim is to highlight my home as a metaphor, to present what is not really a topic, and to make visible the underdeveloped region of the country.
The video is made up of still images and audio recordings. I chose the photographs to create tension and to reinforce the effect of nothing happening. In the video, we walk a journey, from the welcome sign of the city to the center and from there to the end of the city. The place is deserted, there are no people, only sounds to suggest it. Several images show the typical Hungarian countryside, a Turul statue, a „Székely kapu”, a pub, and signs promising a positive future. But in vain, the population is declining and aging, the bright future is a mirage. For me, it will continue to be a village.
EXIT, 2023
lenticular prints
10x20 cm (6 pcs)
Thanks to lenticular printing, I designed signs that show the emergency exit on one side, and on the other side, instead of the exit, a map of Hungary with an arrow pointing west. The signs symbolize my own hesitation as a young adult: should I stay or should I go?
NÜRNBERG, 2022
photobook
60 pages
3D printed cover
I was an Erasmus+ student in Nuremberg from 2021-2022. This book documents the city and the COVID life situation from my perspective as a guest student. I recorded small events in my life, often with my phone, as it was the perfect tool to make memories in any situation.
I chose the Nuremberg heart-shaped gingerbread motif because I found a parallel with the Hungarian mirrored gingerbread heart. Also, by over-decorating the heart format, I wanted to symbolize my „perfect, imperfect” life during my fellowship. During my Erasmus years, I found that I was in a kind of dream world, surrounded by many new and positive experiences, but a life situation like the scholarship is temporary and rare. The pink mist is not always so pleasant, as you have to build a life on your own in a foreign country and find new connections, which is made more difficult by the restrictions imposed by your covid, you can fall ill at any time and you have to manage almost everything on your own. However, with all the good and bad, I have had a few life situations that have generated such an intense journey of self-discovery.
The structure of the book is chronological, starting as an observation of the city and its surroundings, then moving closer and closer to realistic life, new friendships, and a sense of home.