Cabinet from the cottage

CABINET FROM THE COTTAGE INSTALLATION

Olga Kocsi 2012

Cabinet from the Cottage installation size: 208 x 186 x 64 cm video: PAL 6’57� biedermeier cabinet, seats, video, digital frame, crystal hands, lighting frame, hair, key, plastic soldier, woodbox, stickers, photos, cinnamon incense, gold foil.

The installation consists of a modified beidermeier cabinet. In its side panels there are two small chambers, where the visitors can sit in and watch a short film. In the movie my mother speaks about the House, where I grew up. Her voice is over a slow motion video, what looks like a still image.

In the middle of the cabinet there is a showcase for kitschy Holy Olga objects and pictures.

They surround the real memories, known from the video: a key, some hair and a plastic soldier...

The act of giving is important for me, so the visitors can take home some stickers and photos from the lowest drawer of the cabinet.

Cabninet closed Kogart 2012

Cabinet opened Kogart 2012

detail: Cabinet top shelf detail: Cabinet middle shelf

detail: Cabinet down shelf detail: Cabinet’s box full with stickers and photos

My parents in the isntalaltion.

The story what my mother tells in the video: This house was built in 1933, and at the moment this is really old, because we are writing 2011.

The curiosity of this house, that a 22 months old little boy was buried in the garden, which had blond curls. His name was Kálmánka. Whom was shooted into pieces in my mother’s arms in the back terrace of the house. The house near to be located to the railway and there were handto-hand combats in the war. The Germans and the Russians are fights each other, how they just can. And of course they used the civil population too. Now then, the family at that time lived in a bunker near to Erdőkertes and Veresegyház villages. But they came home in Christmas time; to saw that somebody did not took away our furniture. What is it? Because they were saturation bombing in Rákospalota and they was curious for that. They came home, and we lived in the basement here too. My father was enlistment as a soldier. Ohh Me. My mother, me and my brother was in the basement in Rákospalota, the basement which was under our house. Somebody was knocked on our door. My mother came up, because at that time that was who don’t react to the door opening or don’t open the door, they might let in a salvo fire into us. They liquidated five pieces of people in the back terrace with a grenade, because the terrace was opened. Kalmanka took my mother’s skirt near to her. He was 22 months old.

And his cerebellum and scruff was injured by the grenade. He was dying 28 or 24 hours in the Árpád Hospital. My mother brought him to there by sliding face down. And they said if he survived he would had problems with the walking, the going and the speaking because the tragedy was happened with his cerebellum. Problems would be. Consequently he would be a disabled person. His beautiful curly hair is kept. Namely it is prepared near to Philadelphia’s town key, near to the golden key put on blue velvet, which hair they cut off. They buried him into the garden. My father came home for the funeral. And we need to know, if he didn’t come home to his son’s funeral, where the whole street takes apart, he was fall down in the Chain Bridge. Because his squadron was perished there, when the Chain Bridge was fall down. So the Germans exploded the Chain Bridge when the soldiers were marched on it. And now, when Kálmanka was catafalque in a little tubby thing and they were digging his grave in the end of the garden. He was buried with toy soldiers what were given to his as a Christmas presents.

My father was gone grey in 24 hours. I learned in physiology this is impossible, and nothing.

They pull down the shutter in the evening, and in the morning when they pull up it, the kind of blondish, brownish haired man become a snow white haired human. Well, when he died at aged of 86 he had a wonderful beautiful big white hair, and he had white beard. My father was a kind of masculine ideal for me, because he was a pentathlonist. He was a beautiful man. We have got a hart shaped red electronic meter. There are a lot of bruise of the sparkles of the shoots and the grenades on it, because of the war scrum which was happened near to the house. We had a dog. He was always sitting on Kálmánka’s grave. And practically the dog was faithful. He was died with the 22 months old little boy. The dog was died in his sorrow on the top of the grave.

Well, you live in this kind of house. This has taken out a lot of from my parents’ life. My father was a factory hand in Csepel, although he was a graduated man. After he was work in the 15th district’s revenue office, previously it was called Rákospalota’s Council. My mother was a social worker too. And she worked for 16 years for the Mayor’s office of Rákospalota. Well, you are a child of an old girl. Because I was born in 1944 and well I gave birth you in 1987. But there

was a forerunner in 1986, who is Sacika. Well, the pair of you were born in this hoopla. My father was died in age of 86 in 1989. My mother was died in 1994. And as a matter of fact I was very hard to bear to lose both of them. Meanwhile there was more burgle. The values we have had they nicely carry off. Because I went to work in night and day, that I can support you. And my mother and father were about in the edge of the existence and non existence for 15 years.

Sometimes they were in consciousness, sometimes they didn’t. Then by all means, they weren’t whole valuable persons. They couldn’t ever get over what happened with themselves. That’s why I am a really heavy man of peace. I don’t like things like war and similar. I think I brought up both of you in honor, Saci and Olgi too.

And I fell like Olgi bring the flame in herself, the fire. Because some kind of fine art skills I have too. And Olga’s point of view is showed on everything. There was an alley of jegenye trees in the garden; witch was bought in a World Exhibition from the doorman for 10 pengő (old Hungarian currency). We had almost ten jegenye trees. The jegenye trees was huge, when they were cut off they were more than 70 years old. As good as it was a God’s miracle they don’t destroy the house. They were horrible tall. They were big cross sectional elevation. They were rally rude trees. A young blonde boy can cut them off so it was 5 centimeter to the wood was cracked in the fence, but they don’t hurt the house. It was like a bombing. They can feel the crackup of the huge threes in the end of the street. Here you live in a street which have sycamore tree alley with 100 trees in the street. There were you a blond curled little child. You were sitting under the purple locust trees greenery on a white bench. That was the circumstances you grow up. You have a little bunny too. Well, this is our life looks like. What can I tell you about that were? You were living in. You experienced it. We are not a common people. It was hard to endure the world like the kind it is, such as it is.