Kincső Bede’s series, The Art of Pista, draws primarily on personal experiences—in particular on the complicated and conflict-filled relationship between her grandparents—while opening up different perspectives on the possibilities and responsibilities of photography. The work, conceived as a site-specific installation, takes the viewer through different spaces and rooms, each revealing a chapter in a layered story of intergenerational dynamics. Bede blurs the boundaries between staged photographs, fictional stories and documented events. The installation includes not only her own photographs, but also of objects, wooden sculptures made by her grandfather Pista and a video work.
Bede also reflects on her position and the role of the camera, which acted as a shield in difficult situations, providing her with both a determined perspective and the necessary detachment. The result is a tabloid-like, complex mapping of intertwining relationships, and a multilayered reflection on vulnerability, the relationship of individual and collective memory, and photography as a powerful tool for a multifaceted approach to stories of abuse.
The Art of Pista is about the conflicted and difficult-to-heal experience of abuse, but also the contradictory emotions related to the process of temporal distancing: love, affection and their absence, hatred, everlasting and inherited fears, loneliness, selfishness, acceptance, forgiveness.
Kincső Bede was born and raised in Covasna (Romania). She is concerned by the country’s communist past, the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the all-encompassing control of the former Romanian secret police, the Securitate, and how this history is passed down through generations. She studied at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. She currently lives and works in Covasna and Budapest. Kincső Bede is represented by TOBE Gallery in Budapest.
Curator: Lívia Páldi
Venue: Milestone Institute, Wesselényi utca 17. (District 7)
Opening: May 9, 17.00
Open: May 9 – June 14, Thursday–Friday 16.00–19.00, Saturday 10.00–16.00 (Due to private events, the exhibition will not be open to visitors on May 10 and 17)
Supported by: Ciklon Kft., Péter Képkeret
