Ilona Németh

Bio

Ilona Németh is an artist, organizer and curator based in Bratislava. She is professor, head of the Studio IN, leading International education program Open Studio at the Department of Intermedia at the AFAD in Bratislava.

Her artistic practice is a search for the balance between personal experience of growing up in the country marked by plenty of political turmoil and the universal history of the Eastern Bloc countries during the transition period. She exhibited widely both locally and internationally. Her solo shows were organized in Bratislava, Prague, Budapest, Helsinki, Vienna and Rome. She represented Slovakia (together with J. Surůvka) at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. Her solo project Eastern Sugar was recently presented at Kunsthalle Bratislava.

She cocurated the exhibition series Private Nationalism in 6 countries (2014-2015) Universal Hospitality at the City Festival of Wiener Festwochen (2016), MeetFactory and FUTURA, Prague (2017).

Her works are represented in various collections including the Ludwig Museum Budapest, National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow; Linea Collection, Bratislava; The First Slovak Investment Group’s Collection (PSIS), Bratislava; Bratislava City Gallery; Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava; among many others.

www.ilonanemeth.sk

8 MEN

2009, 2012
Tímea 15`14``, Gizella 12`35``, Flóra 5`14``

Cooperation: Csaba Czibula, 2009
Subtitles: Anna Antal
Dóra Hushegyi Rudas, György Szaszák - XL PIXEL Media Studio, 2012

The video “8 MEN” shows the peculiar story of a branch of my family. We tried to reconstruct the last 25 tragic years of this family from the viewpoint of our protagonists, Tímea Gizella and Flóra. The location of the video is a village in the southern part of Slovakia, Ekecs, where my father stems from.

The story of this particular part of my family gained my attention through the annual meetings with Tímea and family on All Saint’s Day (November 1) at the local cemetery, where the graves of my grandparents and great-grandparents are also located. According to the local customs, on this day people visit the cemetery and decorate the graves of their passed-away relatives in their memory. Almost every year, I found there was a new grave for Tímea to care about and a new and staggering story she told me. Over the years, I have gradually come to the conclusion to elaborate in some form on this story that has become a part of my life.

I find in interesting in many way, how one can tackle the hardships he/she meets, how can one live in the shadow of tragic events, and what can one draw upon to be able to survive everyday life with dignity in spite of the circumstances.

Timea:
https://vimeo.com/224646475

8 Men video trilogy was exhibited at:

2017    Collection Collective. Template for a Future Model of Representation, tranzit.sk, Bratislava
2015    Between democracies 1989-2014: Memory and commemoration, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg
2013    Nová Synagóga, Žilina
            Identity of the Space/Identita priestoru, Dum umeniThe Brno Haus of Arts, Brno         
2012    Non Identical Space, Východoslovenská galéria / East – Slovakian Gallery, Košice

In collections:

1/3 Ludwig Museum Budapest
2/3 Collection Collective

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