Krisztina Fazekas

Krisztina Fazekas

multi-media and performance artist

(Düsseldorf, Germany)

Until 2012, the focus of my artistic work was on photography. I experimented with traditional techniques such as camera obscura and cyneotypes. Later, I opened up my practice to other media, such as video, sound and installation. Since 2019, performance and performance-based films have also been part of my means of expression.

As a reflection of my changing life circumstances, I have been exploring my own personal, social, cultural and historical heritage. While creating a series of autobiographical artworks, I researched psychological, social and historical contexts about resettlement and migration, personal and social trauma, mental illness in society and the connection between time, identity and memory.

Awards

Technique Photographer of the Year - Analog Sparks Award 2023

Honorable Mention - 15th Julia Margaret Cameron Award 2020

Jury Favorite - Portfolio Review Fotofestival Mannheim-Ludwigshafen-Heidelberg 2015

Portfolio Winner - 4th International Portfolio Review Vienna 2012

Jury Selection - Celeste Prize 2012

Honorable Mention - Prix de la Photographie Paris, Altered Images 2012

Official Jury Selection - Prix de la Photographie 2011

Honorable Mention - 35th Anniversary International Women Only Photography Call 2010

Jury Selection - Renaissance Competition London 2008

Website: www.interestingeyes.com 

Instagram: @krisztinaseyes2

Title: Memory Rituals (2023)

When writer Georges Perec stood front of the house at 24 Rue Vilin in Paris, where he once lived, he remarked:”Je ne suis pas rentré.” Standing outside the door, he did not go inside, but from the undertone throughout his entire work, one can deduce that he ’never came home’. Many of Krisztina Fazekas’s work allude to the layered meaning of  ‘coming home’, and zoom in on the complex relationship between mother and child. “Memory Rituals” is the end phase of a long-running artistic project in which the artist expresses this relationship by means of solitary works, exhibitions and spatial interventions. 

Some biographical information should be given in order to be able empathise with her starting point. Although Krisztina’s parents lived separated in Communist Budapest, it was only by erecting a wall in their home. The tumult of the physical abuse by her mother remained audible on the other side of this wall and was documented on tape by her father by way of evidence. This material, however, did not lead to corrective action, but became anchored in passivity or neglect, another form of abuse. The complexity of this mother-child relationship is exacerbated by the fact that Krisztina also retains numerous pleasant memories of her mother, such that she did not become a one dimensional character. Given that no diagnosis was made at the time by the (non-existent) mental health care system and she quickly started to fade into dementia, her mother curiously enough seems to be absolved of her responsibility due to her lack of memories. 

Whatever strategy or ritual activity the artist may avail of, her ‘Memory Rituals’ remain wounds from her childhood that she cannot possibly erase. They resis materialisation, encapsulation or hardening. Thus a search is created in the space of fantasy that art allows her, challenging her to  move beyond the technical mastery of a certain medium - photography, video, performance. 

The artist recently found another opening through her own child. She adds - like mirroring her father - audiotapes on which the euphoria of her son while playing and singing can be heard. 

Text written by: Stef Van Belingen, Curator