When Powerlessness Becomes Form (workshop)

April 25–30, 2015

Organisers: Anca Benera, Arnold Estefan

The workshop was an extension of the artists’ project „Isa por is homou vagymuk / We are all dust and ashes” which employs Kopjafa elements – traditional Szekler funeral pillars in Transylvania, also used as totem poles – an explicit right wing symbol in Hungary, almost a taboo in liberal circles. Each geometric motif of kopjafa represents a chapter of life, a social status, an event to remember.

Considering kopjafa’s status as funeral pillar, the artists and the participants to the workshop re-thought and created new visual representations for marginalised, expelled, oppressed social groups by the actual government. The long-term purpose is to infiltrate the new aesthetics within the usual traditional circuit and eventually be adopted involuntary by the nationalist rhetoric.

Besides the artists, the workshop was lead by Mr Aladár Ambrus, a renowned “kopjafa” and folk wood-carver from Szekler Land, Romania (based in Budapest) and his son. It had 10-15 participants each day. In the framework of their other project „You have reached a turning point, at least!”,a clandestine intervention, the artists sent text messages to the participants of the OFF-Biennale from unknown phone numbers.

Venue: MeetLab (1111 Budapest, Stoczek utca 11.)

When Powerlessness Becomes Form (workshop) was created as part of the Check Your Head! program of the OFF-Biennále Budapest.