Ladik, Katalin: Poemim (1978/2010)

Katalin Ladik joined the Hungarian avant-garde circles in Vojvodina in the early seventies as the only female member of the Bosch+Bosch group, primarily as a poet and performer. Drawing on her acting practice, she worked in the fields of body art, happening, sound poetry and photo-performance; her actions, accompanied by visual poems and “scores”, are captured in photo and video documentaries. In her performances, she deliberately built on her particular feminine sensibility and the female body as a means of drawing attention, a gesture that was not only bold but also liberating for its time. “Women understood that it was a must-exhibitionism, that it was a provocation, that my body was my tool because I wasn’t a university professor.” In her work, she explored not only female archetypes but also socially accepted gender roles in the “macho” environment around her. Her art is about pushing the boundaries of poetry through the interaction of sound, movement and objects. In a series of photographs entitled Poemim, she distorts her face by pressing it against a sheet of glass, framing the grotesque facial expressions and grimaces, revealing her inner feelings, her emotions and her true personality. “I did look out of the picture, I dared to ruin my face and I did what not many women dare to do. Nowadays, you hardly ever see photos without Photoshop, and I’ve been covered in documentary photos my whole life. What hasn’t changed is that women are expected to be beautiful and doll-like, but I’ve fought against that because I’m also grotesque and I dare to be ugly...” (Katalin Ladik, 2019)

Krisztina Szipőcs