Martina Dendi

Hungarian Style shows ironic and grotesque self-portraits which represent the clumsy attempts to integrate myself into a different culture and the difficulty of a linguistic misunderstanding that becomes a play of visual communication.

Budapest saved me: I lived there for seven months, during my Erasmus, and that experience changed me as a person and as an artist. Before arriving there, I studied in an art academy in Italy for five years and my vision was tied to academic limits that were starting to suffocate me.

I felt that I needed to find the “real” me but I didn’t know how. Also, I was in a not- so-bright moment of my life and my art suffered also because of that. Thanks to this opportunity, for the first moment in my life I felt free to express myself as I wanted and to experiment with my art.

For that, I can say without a doubt that Budapest was my rite of passage.

During this process, photography was the key: due to a linguistic gap, my art was my only tool; I couldn’t speak but I could observe. I decided to turn me into a fearless modern anthropologist who could lost herself in the city, discovering and enjoying a different culture.

Thanks to Budapest, my life become brighter and - for that - my art too; I realized that you don’t need to do “serious” art to take your self seriously and sometime your message can be better understood if you erase some superstructures.

The erotic nuance you can feel in the whole project has two meanings: a personal one and a cultural one. Starting with the cultural one: Hungary is the capital of porn but despite of that, no one talks about it; you can feel a giant taboo ghost all around the people: a grotesque contradiction that could not go unnoticed by my sensibility.

At the same time, the erotic vibe has a personal meaning: all the sentimental repression that I imposed to myself until that moment, finally explodes, generating freedom of framing and colors: the re-appropriation of a lightness that I’ve been lost for so long.

Sesso Italiano talks about a typical Italian couple from the 60s, the era of the economic boom and Fred Bongusto, that clashes violently with our generation's, ruined by the economic crisis in 2008 and the Coronavirus pandemic. While at the beginning of the project we can see a reality dominated by patriarchy, the next photos represent a turnaround: through our bulimic hunger as artists, and my own hunger as a woman, we convey all the sexual repression that our grandparents suffered in the past.

Sesso italiano talks about stereotypes and for that is divided in three chapters entitled as the holy italian trinity: God, Homeland and Family.

Chapter 1: GOD

A typical Italian couple from the 60s is perfectly settled in the kitchen, the “woman’s temple”.
It seems the victory of patriarchy but then a twist happens: the rebellion against the system.

Chapter 2: HOMELAND

The game day is the spike of italian patriotism.
In a very young nation like ours, where there has always been a heavy competition between neighbouring countries, when a football match involves Italy we immediately become the proudest and most united people.
Martina, only covered with the flag, is the living representation of the nation and she’s watching the match next to her supporter and lover: Lorenzo.
Their difficult relationship only settles down in this context.

Chapter 3: FAMILY

We are now in the most intimate moment of the day. Sourja is between them and it’s the only daughter they can afford because of economic crisis and job insecurity.
The disillusionment towards future causes the weakening of every sexual impulse.