Emma Varga
email: emmavarga96@gmail.com website: emmavarga.myportfolio.com instagram: @emmavargaarchive
I make art to understand what unsettles me. The grotesque appears frequently in my work—as a way to confront the unspoken—and I’m drawn to visual contradictions where beauty turns disturbing. Recently, I have been exploring the intersections of art and science.
Awards
2025
First Prize, National Round of The National Student Research Conference [OTDK], Arts and Art Theory Section, Photography 1 category,
2024
First Prize, Institutional Round of The National Student Research Conference [TDK], Arts and Art Theory
Exhibitions
2025
METU TALENTS, Budapest [Hungary], METU Galéria, Group exhibition, June 2025., with my series Natura Morta ANALOGON, Eger [Hungary], Líceum, Group exhibition, May 2025., with my project Mold
CV Studies
2022 - 2025
Budapest Metropolitan University
Photography BA [Fine Art Photography]
2025-
University of the Arts London Art and Science MA
Languages
Hungarian [native]
English [C1}
Italian [B2]
German [B2]
[with my series, Natura Morta]
Section – Budapest Metropolitan University [with my series, Natura Morta]
VICTIMAE [2025] - photobook /hardcover, swiss bind, 20x25 cm, 112 pages
How does a living being become a victim? When did we become so detached from life that we built systems around it to decide who is worthy of living? What happens to those who are not worthy? What happens when we are not worthy? Who is it that selects, categorises, decides – and who empowered them? Sacrifice was originally a sacred act; today we make sacrifices, we become victims on the altar of power, political ideologies and scientific progress instead of gods. Which body becomes a tool, a sacrifice, and which remains protected? What happens when we no longer defend life, but the system? Who is to say what is life and what is not? “Man is the cruellest animal.” – writes Nietzsche. But is it really the animal that is cruel or is it man who can build a system around cruelty?
My work presents the process of victimization—in animals, drawing parallels with the mechanisms at work in human society. At the cellular level, the dichotomy between humans and animals disappears; under a microscope, it is impossible to tell what is human and what is animal. This is also reflected in my book: as it progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell what is human and what is animal, what is fiction and what is reality, and what or who the victim is.
VOX
whenua [2025] - photobook /hardcover, 30x30 cm, 64 pages
Embarking on an inner journey — primarily along biological pathways, not spiritual ones — the exploration gradually transforms into something deeper: a ‘journey within’. Along this path, we are invited to rediscover the essence of life and the true nature of our being. Through new perspectives on the living world, familiar structures are revealed in unfamiliar ways, challenging what we believe we already know. These images seek to bridge the gap between art and science, between the visible and the invisible. By searching for alternative imaging tools, hidden worlds, normally beyond the reach of the human eye or camera, are brought into vision. In this spirit, details from cross-sections of (diseased) animal tissues have been freely extracted, enlarged, and reimagined — shaping natural phenomena, landforms, and landscapes from within the biological fabric of life.
In Māori, “whenua” means both “land” and “placenta” — a dual meaning that frames this journey inward as both an exploration of biological origin and a reimagining of landscape. What is beneath the skin is not separate from the world we walk upon. It invites us to reconsider boundaries not as separations, but as deep connections between origin and terrain, body and earth.
Saltator [2024] - short film (2m 21s, shot with microscopes]
link: https://emmavarga.myportfolio.com/saltator-2024
The theme of the short film is the exploration of a pseudo-scientific, fictional phenomenon, in which the relationship between humanity and nature/microbiology is reflected through the anthropomorphization of a fictional bacterium and the exploration of a fictional dance between the bacterium and its environment, attempting to imitate the style of documentary films.
I want to critically reflect on the increasing amount of fake news and deepfake content appearing in the media, which unfortunately many people believe without question, and highlight the importance of source criticism and media criticism.