Artist
Noémi Szécsi
Noémi Szécsi (b. 1998) is a half-Hungarian, half-Romanian photographer, currently living in Budapest. She studied photography at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, from which she holds an MA. A member of the Studio of Young Photographers, Hungary, Szécsi’s projects are centred on specific groups of people living on the margins of society – from gravediggers to far-right protesters, to the witches she is currently working with. Her conviction is that the medium of photography offers no universal truths, but it does maintain a mediating and sensitising power. For the artist, the camera is a passport to the places where she interacts with people, allowing her to experience these different positions.
It cannot rain forever
When we hear the word witch, most of us think of a scary woman on the fringes of society, living in solitude, and using magic with malicious intent. It’s no wonder that, in the stories we used to hear as children, the wicked witch is the cause of all evil – making life miserable for an orphaned girl, or eating children who stray her way. But fairytales are only the surface; we must look for deeper and more complex reasons behind the negative connotations associated with the word ‘witch’. Fairytales are a simplified imprint of centuries-long realities in which the negative image of women has developed. Historical cases of women being accused of witchcraft – and thus ostracised from society – brought social changes that are still felt today.
My project follows women who have experienced great emotional depths and who have found their spiritual strength in various forms of witchcraft. They believe in everyday signs; in their ability to control their own destiny, and in their knowledge of a world that is invisible to the uninitiated. Alongside the details of the reality they experience, I present a picture in which the word ‘witch’ is just an attribute, encompassing the pain of centuries of suffering, subordination in society, and the strength of women who have endured vulnerability. It proclaims the strength of fragile women who find each other in their exclusion and thus create community. Belonging is an elemental need, and the women I encountered need to feel that their presence in the world is unique and meaningful; that their beliefs, opinions and worldviews are valued.
Michaela Nagyidaiová is a Slovak photographer whose work analyses the thorny path of transformation of Central and Eastern Europe from communism to capitalism, as well as roots and the migration of individuals. Her project Moulding is an exploration of how the current circumstances in countries that were formerly part of the ‘Eastern Bloc’ affect individuals, topography, and ideologies – and how political apparatuses ‘mould’ the layers of everyday lives in different forms.
As a second generation Vietnamese living in Czech Republic, identity is a key motive to the artist Hiep Duong Chi too. His series That time I wished I was a white butterfly deals with the symbols associated with Vietnamese culture, and how they are tested in new environments. By removing them from their original contexts, these motifs take on different meanings, pointing to the many perspectives through which they can be viewed.
Veronika Čechmánková explores the changes of symbols and traditions over time, their transformations, and possible meanings for the present. In the series Flowers are not to be picked. Flowers are to be admired, she juxtaposes the exploitation of the fashion industry with the world of flowers, ultimately highlighting how the floral aesthetic has become a spectacle of lifestyle and entertainment far removed from the natural world.
In the series See how these memories affect your water, Michał Patycki sets out to find specific situations and moods associated with intimate mental and physical experiences. In his photographs, seemingly unrelated entities intersect in compositions both melancholic and mysterious often with a slightly unsettling edge. The links implied are fragile, suggesting a mutual intimacy that holds them together, just for a while.
In the precise search for authentic and novel themes, Noémi Szécsi is consistent and exceptional. She focuses on specific groups of people who can be seen as teetering on a certain edge of a society; employees of a funeral home, far-right protesters or women intensely involved in the practice of magic. The latter, under the title it cannot rain forever, is what Noémi has been working on between Hungary and Netherland for the last two years.