A city does not have its own tale. The tale of a city is the tale of its people: the totality of all the stories of its residents, of the people passing through and the people moving away. Accordingly, Marianne Csáky’s exhibition – featuring her most recent works – focuses on human relationships, the subtle movements and gestures capable of expressing them, especially when these situations arise amidst momentous historical events. This micro-macro relation is reinforced by the temporality, or rather, the timelessness, of the works.

Exploring the impressions of individual and collective memory, Csáky incorporates photographic documents of 20th century history as well as her own work from decades earlier into the exhibited pieces – all set in an imaginary, future context. By means of photography, drawing, sculpture and video, she juxtaposes moments of everyday life with absurd moments of modern history, conveying both the artist’s personal experiences and common mementos of (Western) society.

Marianne Csáky (1959, Budapest) is primarily concerned with such dominant themes as persisting narratives inherited from our ancestors, the political regimes of certain historical periods and the rewritability of the reality inherent in images. Her media include photo-based works, video animations, sculptures and objects. She lived in China for long, but has also been on residencies in France, Germany, the USA and South Korea. She lives and works in Brussels and Budapest.