Portfolio_Judit Kis

JUDIT KIS

PORTFOLIO

Vanishing Point - Heart & Cherry, Budapest 2024 In her wall installation, Judit Kis is presenting her new brick sculptures engraved with symbols of connection, wholeness and togetherness. ,Q FRQWUDVW ZLWK KHU HDUOLHU SLHFHV FHQWHUHG DURXQG VSHFL¿F ZRUGV DQG concepts, she aims to move towards more universal expressions that transcend the languages of dominant cultures. For the creation of these new brick pairs, Kis drew upon her experiences related to the integration process of grief, separation anxiety and the desire for connection and unity. The wall installation is complemented by a curtain featuring UHÀHFWLYH WH[WV WKDW V\PEROL]H WKH WKLQ FHOO PHPEUDQH ORFDWHG LQ WKH ZRPE EHWZHHQ WZLQ EDELHV 7KLV ÀRDWLQJ SLHFH UHÀHFWV RQ KHU UHFHQW discovery and research on the psychological signs of a vanishing twin syndrome.

Handle with Care at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest 2023-24 Enchanting Souls, (#andalitolelkek) is a new participatory and installative work, encompassing my research on animal welfare, plant based diets and the connection between our digestion and mental health. By recognizing the interconnectedness among various systems of oppression, my aim is to highlight the concerns of intersectional environmental movements and acknowledge animal rights despite the ongoing problem of speciesism. Through this installation, which will be accompanied by a series of workshops and an online performance, I am hoping to develop an educational platform to engage my audience regarding animal advocacy movements and the decolonization of our unsustainable food systems. The workshops are invitations to experience the characteristics of animals and their levels of sentience in a playful way. My endeavor is to create an ethical space for engagements through open discussions to contemplate on the nature of womanhood and motherhood of non-human animals.

The installation; Enchanting Souls is dedicated for workshops with meditations, open discussions and participatory actions.

PERIOD. Connecting Nature through the Subconscious’ MQ Artist in Residence of the Art and Ecology program In collaboration with other artists and performers, Judit Kis develops an installation and participatory performance that questions our perspective on the UHSURGXFWLYH V\VWHP RI WKH IHPDOH ERG\ DQG UHÀHFWV RQ WKH REMHFWL¿FDWLRQ DQG exploitation of non-human animals.

Collaborators: Anabel Scheffold, Sarah Sternat, Sanna Bo, Milena Annaloro, Crystal Wall, Lana Sharp, Guadalupe Aldrete, Meredith Marks

2023 Raum D, Museumsquartier Vienna

Dream Meditation with Obsidian Mirrors, Museumsquartier Vienna 2023 Participants are invited for a deep meditation with magical objects and a sharing session afterwards. The use of black mirror as an instrument for healing is an ancient ‘technology of the self’ by Mesoamerican cultures. The knowledge is preserved and shared widely by Mexican researchers through the courses and community of Calea Flora.

SURRENDER, video installation (9.21 min) at Binálé - Queering Democracy, Spring Festival Budapest 2023

SURRENDER 2021-22 The three video works for my solo show Surrender, resulted from my research I started in Mexico on alternative healing methodologies, plant medicines and indigenous community care. I explored and healed some of my own traumas through ceremonies with local practitioners, artists and activists.

The Sanctuary - Healing Strategies in Times of Inner and Outer Turmoil at Motherboard Artspace, Vienna

Tamás Ábel & Judit Kis: STRATEGIC STILLNESS American Hungarian Library and Historical Society, April 2022 my body gypsy

my body jew my body cuman my body holy my body blind my body colored my body whore my body Hungarian — Agáta Gordon, “Trance-spiral” (Transz-spirál)

To grapple with the unfolding crises in their micro and macro environments, Hungarian artists Tamás Ábel and Judit Kis reimagine the recently renovated American Hungarian Library as an inclusive space for rest, reading, and contemplation.

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SURRENDER Vienna / Budapest The exhibitions entitled SURRENDER at Kahan Art Space Vienna and Budapest were organised by Dr. Éva Kahán Foundation in January and February in 2022. The two solo exhibition presented Judit Kis’ latest video works and sculptures concerning her ongoing research on self-healing proFHVVHV ,Q KHU SHUIRUPDWLYH DUW .LV UHÀHFWV RQ WKH H[SHULHQFHV DQG WUDXPDV that shape our identities, personal boundaries, and behavioural patterns.

The artist combines digital content with installations of objects and epands into participatory performances and community engagement. During the exhibition her audience were invited to take part in various activities, such as yoga, meditation, movement medicine workshop and artist talks.

The artist talks were in conversation with Veronika Molnar curator.

The yoga class was held by Carmen Vakerle and the movement medicine workshop was facilitated by Meredith Marks healing practitioner alongside with guided meditations and performances by the artist.

Black Tape, Ebony Frame exhibition by Zachary Fabri engagement by Judit Kis RECESS, New York ‘The unanswered questions that I have never dared to ask’ is a performative group exercise to embody questions that form our opinions and can shake up our intimate connections. Reconsidering the title of an earlier work from her F\EHUORYHB VHULHV -XGLW .LV LQYLWHV KHU DXGLHQFH WR UHÀHFW RQ WKH VLWXDWLRQV ZKHUH ZH GRQ¶W TXHVWLRQ UHDOLW\ EXW UDWKer merge into precarity, leaving enormous space for projection, misbelief, prejudices or fantasy. With the intention to create a collective learning environment through a cross-community interaction, her idea is to dissolve doubts around the fear of questioning and hoping to raise more awareness, empathy and understanding of our living conditions.’

Healing Garden intensive course by the School of Disobedience. (collaboration) The School of Disobidience is a radical educational program for young women and it’s a project of artist/ coreographer Anna Adam. Our collaboration focused on selfcare and healing practices with the aim to create rituals and a public performance at the end. My task was to facilitate a workshop, which was a long discussion on the issues they wanted to engage with and several feedback sessions.

PERFORMANCE AND GROUP ACTIVITY DURING THE ‘EARTH IN THE HEAVENS’ POP UP EXHIBITION AT ZXY GALLERY, NYC (the bricks were wrapped in paper with texts that participants read out loud and painted together)

“Birth of a Common Brick” A unit to construct, a pattern to repeat; and a wall is already between us. *YLH[PUN H JSH` IYPJR PU [OL RPSU YLX\PYLZ ^H[LY ZVPS ÄYL HUK V_`NLU (SS MV\Y LSLTLU[Z HYL LZZLU[PHS I\[ VUJL P[ OHZ ILLU ÄYLK P[ JHU UL]LY YL]LY[ to nature. Similar to the decisions we make or the words we speak - things [OH[ JHU»[ IL [HRLU IHJR ^L JHU»[ WYL[LUK [OL` OH]L UL]LY OHWWLULK )YPJRZ JHU IL PUÄUP[LS` YLJ`JSLK" [OLYLMVYL ^L OH]L [OL VWWVY[\UP[` [V YL[OPUR these blocks within us.

3P]PUN H ZLSM JVUZJPV\Z SPML \UKLY [OL WYLZZ\YL VM [PTL 0 work with the consciousness of death at my shoulder, not JVUZ[HU[S` I\[ VM[LU LUV\NO [V SLH]L H THYR \WVU HSS VM T` life’s decisions and actions. And it does not matter whether [OPZ KLH[O JVTLZ UL_[ ^LLR VY [OPY[` `LHYZ MYVT UV^" [OPZ JVUZJPV\ZULZZ NP]LZ T` SPML HUV[OLY IYLHK[O 0[ OLSWZ ZOHWL [OL ^VYKZ 0 ZWLHR [OL ^H`Z 0 SV]L T` WVSP[PJ VM HJ[PVU [OL Z[YLUN[O VM T` ]PZPVU HUK W\YWVZL [OL KLW[O VM T` HWWYLJPH[PVU VM SP]PUN Audre Lorde

‘I am the mother of everything that’s vulnerable to me’

‘Love me more than your morning latte!’ a cow whispered

‘We already know the idea that freedom can only be exercised if there is enough support for the exercise of freedom, a material condition that enters into the act that it makes possible. Indeed, when we think about the embodied subject who exercises speech or moves through public space, across borders, it is usually presumed to be one that is already free to speak and move.’

Judith Butler

RU EXHIBITION/ SURRENDER Text by Chelsea Pierce In using her own body and subjectivity as a tool within her confessional art practice, Judit Kis establishes intimacy between herself and the viewer to instill an emotional impression. Focused on self-care and healing, she has recently explored Indigenous uses of plant medicines in ritual and 1950s psychiatric experiments with psychedelics to work through trauma. Creating her own sensory spaces, both virtual and physical, she explores the boundaries of conscious and subconscious existence. ;OPZ HWWYVHJO VɈLYZ WV[LU[PHS MVY OLHSPUN I` PKLU[PM`PUN WH[[LYUZ HUK confronting harmful cycles through interaction with her installations and performative video series. The meditation on mind and body at a micro level speaks to a larger connectedness between self, society, and nature, bridging mental health with ecological sustainability. :;(5+(9+: IYPJRZ JHZ[ PU KPɈLYLU[ TH[LYPHSZ ¶ JVUJYL[L THYISL JLYHTPJ ^VVK ¶ HUK PUZJYPILK ^P[O [YHP[Z VY HJ[PVUZ ¶ ºHU_PL[`» ºKLZPYL» ºJHYL» º]\SULYHISL» ºYLTLTILY» ºU\Y[\YL» ¶ LWP[VTPaL OLY JVU]LYZPVU VM the metaphysical into the material. Users can manipulate them as they JOVVZL JVU[LTWSH[PUN [OLPY UH[\YL ÅH^Z HUK KLZPYLZ [V I\PSK H UL^ self-image, brick by brick. These constructions in the gallery space speak to the formation of identity in the virtual space, whereby a social media user makes similar selections in the presentation of their online selves.

The social media series CYBERLOVE occupies a digital presence to create a diaristic account of a failed relationship. Likewise, ruminations on past events, communications, and aspirations in I HAVE NEVER HAP7,5,+ PUZWPYL PU[YVZWLJ[PVU ;OPZ WYVJLZZ VM PKLU[PÄJH[PVU YLÅLJ[PVU and creation is at the core of her socially engaged practice.

Kis earned her MA diploma in Intermedia from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, and her process and conceptualization is true to the Flux\Z ZWPYP[ MYVT ^OPJO ºPU[LYTLKPH» LTLYNLK /LY JVSSHIVYH[P]L HWWYVHJO underscores an open view on the role of art. Practitioners of confessional art, Tracey Emin and Félix González-Torres, for example, foreground the artist’s self. However, she takes a step further, inserting the autobiographical into a participatory paradigm where the artist’s self can meet the other. Art is a pathway and Kis paves her own road, brick by brick, and hopes that some are brave enough to follow it.

CURRENTLY ON VIEW - no-longer-being-able-to-be-able https://www.skelf.org.uk/S_Q/Hang/Hang_Section3%20(hang).html

Text by the curator, Hang Li no-longer-being-able-to-be-able began from an urge to think about a shared unease in an over-saturated contemporary life. The limitless WYVK\J[P]P[` HUK NYV^[O LUJV\YHNLK I` ULVSPILYHS PKLVSVN` OH]L YLKLÄULK WLVWSL HZ SHIV\YLYZ ^OV OH]L [V JVU[PU\L [V HISL [V ^VYR HUK consume in order to be able to be.

The title of the project refers to Byung-Chul Han’s The Burnout Society (2010), which interrogates contemporary life’s immanent excessive positivity and information. In such a society, everybody becomes an entrepreneur fully responsible for the outcomes of their ‘individual’ lives. In order to be responsible in this sense, people are so busy proving they are able to work, compete, consume and survive. It becomes hard to hold on and ask why we should be able to be able, and for the sake of whom. The predominating fantasies of unlimited growth have rendered feelings of tiredness, anxiety and disorientation daunting and negative. They become symptoms of being fragile, defective and incompetent. These ‘negativities’ have promoted the contemporary myths of health, care, safety and protection. The pandemic, once seen as a chance to suspend and contest these myths, is instead fuel for the continuation of ‘the normal’ in both the art ÄLSK HUK ^PKLY ZVJPL[` In response to the neoliberal norm of being-able-to-be-able, no-longer-being-able-to-be-able explores the unease in excessive everyday life from the perspective of labourer, consumer, woman, Queer individual, ethnic minority, teenager, internet user, art worker and an exhausted ‘regular person’. By unpacking the culture of abundance and expansion, this project questions the meaning of be and being able that are underpinned by particular ideologies, powerholders and histories. The works presented in the project aim to explore the possible ways of recognition, articulation and interrogation amid overloaded, oversaturated, and overdrawn beings.

, 2017

Interview with Judit Kis on the (Media) Art of

The Hungarian artist Judit Kis was one of the artists who Vulnerability and Care by Geert Lovink gave a performance during Video Vortex #12 in Malta, in September 2019. This is where I was introduced to https://networkcultures.org/videovortex/2020/04/13/judit-kis/ her very personal work. In the following months I engaged with her work and decided to approach her for I was interested in an online exchange with her because of my recent work on mental states DQ HPDLO LQWHUYLHZ ,Q DQ DUWLVWLF VHQVH -XGLW .LV ÀWV VXFK DV VDGQHVV DQJHU DQG ORQHOLQHVV DQG KRZ WKRVH PRRGV DUH JHQHUDWHG E\ VSHFLÀF DOJRZHOO LQWR WKH ¶LQWHUPHGLD· FDWHJRU\ 6KH SURGXFHV YLGULWKPV WKDW PDNH \RX IHHO EDG +HU ZHEVLWH VWDWHV WKDW -XGLW .LV· SUDFWLFH GHDOV ZLWK LQWHJUDWLRQ eos, photo documentations, prints, paintings, ceramics, VHOI UHYHODWLRQ DQG KHDOLQJ ´,Q D IRUP RI ¶FRQIHVVLRQDO DUW· P\ DLP LV WR FUHDWH ZRUNV WKDW DUH performances and installations consisting of blankets, embracing vulnerability and engaging my audience to connect themselves and others on a lightboxes and bricks. She prints sentences on textile deeper level.” Her recent projects emphasize the importance of self-care and rituals in a conDQG HQJUDYHV ZRUGV LQWR FHUDPLF EULFNV DOO LQ (QJOLVK WHPSRUDU\ FRQWH[W UHÁHFWLQJ WR RXU GLYHUVH FXOWXUDO KHULWDJH WKDW EHFDPH PRUH DFFHVVLEOH E\ Titles of some of her video works: I have never haptechnology. According to Kis “art has a transformative power in our thinking and especially if SHQHG 'HWR[LÀFDWLRQ 'HGLFDWLRQ 'LVLOOXVLRQ 'LVWDQFH this art can be bodily experienced and show progresses in personal improvement.” Take her , ORYH \RX DQG D FRQIURQWLQJ RQH (QRXJK ¶&\EHUORYH· SURMHFW ZKLFK FRQVLVWHG RI DQ HLJKW PRQWK ORQJ ,QVWDJUDP SHUIRUPDQFH DERXW D VHPL SODWRQLF ORYH DIIDLU ´D YLGHR LQVWDOODWLRQ ZLWK DUWLÀFLDO IRJ D VHULHV RI HPRWLRQDO ODQGscapes printed on Tyvek paper and a 2 sqm blanket.” Over the years we see her work evolve from diagnosis to therapy, from experimentation with the self through a radical public display RI WKH DUWLVWV· XQFHUWDLQW\ WR VWUDWHJLHV RI VHOI KHDOLQJ -XGLW .LV SXW KHUVHOI WR WKH WHVW +HU ZRUN LV GHÀQHG E\ D UHÀQHG (DVW (XURSHDQ GU\QHVV SUHFLVLRQ PL[HG ZLWK D JUH\ DEVHQFH RI KRSH where diminished expectations of a harsh neo-liberal society, life in general, and the Other in particular become rich resources for confronting, intimate art pieces. The following exchange took place right before and during the coronavirus crisis, in March-April 2020.

Metonym - exhibition view at MMG, 2019

#cyberlove_

This project consists of an eight month long intagram performance, a video installation with HY[PÄJPHS MVN H ZLYPLZ VM ºLTV[PVUHS SHUZJHWLZ» printed on 70x100 cm tyvek paper and a 200x200 m blanket. 2017

Derkovits Award 2019 - Exhibition view at the Kunsthalle Budapest

I HAVE NEVER HAPPENED – in search of disappearing affections 24.02-06.03.2016 topic | espace d’art independent, Genève

my identit y depends on no one.. if u weren’t with me you couldn’t be an artist

What stories we write with our broken affairs? How relationships can become very different stories for those connected to it where is the truth how the things happened really? Are they happened at all? What evidences we have to reconstruct these stories? What objects we are left with? What are these emotional states doing with reality and how these subjective memories can be destructed, rewritten and disappeared. How long and what does it take to be cleaned by all the illusions?

All my works are honest reflections to the temporary impressions that are often repeated themselves in my life. I had an idea to go beyond the genre of my artworks because they are my subjective self-reflections only. I collected letters from my past lovers to reconstruct their memories of our relationship. I was curious to see what effects I made on other lives while they are mostly become the source of my artworks like being an inspiration for a piece.

You’ve been in love with my temporary and limited ZLSM ^P[O T` LɈVY[Z [V JOHUNL HUK 0 KPK [OL ZHTL ^P[O `V\

- illusion cleaning yoga class

The exhibition was realized through a three week residency program in Geneva. The project included public engaged programs (workshops, lecture, yoga class, screening) a limited edition fanzine and an online performance on instagam (#ihaveneverhappened).

CONTENTMENT MA diploma project

CONTENTMENT is a mental and emotional state in which a form of happiness is realized through the acceptance of life situations.

The project included a video installation, a thousand piece puzzle and a thesis on identity construction.

Eight video in loop; I love you, Enough, Distance, Disillusion, Release, Detoxification, Dedication, Contentment.