Hungarian born, Dutch artist Dóra Benyó lives and works between The Hague (NL), Brussels (BE) and Budapest (HU). Through video, performance and painting, Benyó uses her own genealogy to speak of censorship and authority in Hungary during the Soviet era. From a personal quest for belonging, she searches for traces left by dictatorship on her family, using the position of the eternal newcomer, existing between two worlds.

In 2019 Benyó visited the AQB for the first time and requested insight into the official documents from the Hungarian Archive of State Security Service on her grandfather, who used to be part of the democratic opposition before the regime change. After nine months of waiting she received the documents of 255 pages and this project evolved into the process of making a long-length-experimental-documentary-film. She came back three times to continue her research, speak with the former oppositional democrats and develop her scenario.

For the final presentation of her stay AQB is hosting a solo presentation of her video works and invited the Hungarian historian Krisztián Ungváry and art historian and museologist of the Kassák Múzeum in Budapest Edit Sasvári to have a conversation on the topic of the importance of the transparency of the archives, Benyó’s research and to discuss how the historical context influences her artistic practice.

We are very much looking forward to welcome you in aqb’s project space for this very special occasion.

Dóra Benyó and her project is supported by the Mondriaan Fund.