Elek Judit Katalin: Családmodellek

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An exhibition resurrected from the original WordPress archive of the Godot Gallery.

Full exhibition text

from the Günter and Grétel series

The Godot Gallery invites you.

Elek Judit Katalin

Family models

for the exhibition titled

Opening: 2013. October 2 at 20 o'clock.

Opening: József Mélyi, art historian

Open until October 26 from Tuesday to Friday 9 to 14, on Saturday between 10 and 13.

Günter and Grétel

On the 2001 of September 11 we were just driving along the motorway with László Csáki.

Heading toward Mezőszemere, in our van carrying the complete costume and equipment set of the Günter and Grétel series, I received a phone call from Peer Krisztián, who inquired whether I could take me to a good sitting studio, because now that the World Trade Centre had collapsed, he would like to pay him tribute with a t‑shirt.

So began that one week during which the photographs of Günter and Grétel were taken. The original idea was that the series would concern two ageing, bored people's travels and their self‑representation set up for their own entertainment, but now it had become filled with new questions about the ladder, the meaning of life and relationships.

from the Günter and Grétel series

The Günter and Grétel project is based on the amateur photo collection of an unknown author. The flip‑books bought at the Augsburg flea market documented the travels, everyday life and gatherings with friends of a German couple, with impressive technical skill and quality. After reviewing the hundreds of shots it was discovered that every picture was taken by the husband, which is why only a single image shows him, even there he is masked at a carnival/ New Year’s Eve gathering. They had no children, and almost their entire life was devoted to travel; from the 50s onward they journeyed almost all of Europe in their caravan. Almost every country they visited can be identified from the estate, but for some reason Hungary was missing. Thus the idea arose to collaborate with László Csáki to create the Günter and Grétel photo series, augmenting the photo archive with non‑existent Hungarian images, evoking the aesthetics and composition of amateur photography. For a time we suited up as our protagonists and staged a fictitious excursion through Hungary of the 1960s. Starting from the amateur footage we sought expressive locations and objects that most accurately evoke the era and geographical setting. During our tour at bars, baths, community halls we paused and photographed our presence. Exactly as if Günter and Grétel had visited Hungary in the 1960s.

Snapshots from a series

Snapshots from a family father's life.

A protagonist of the Pillanatképek series is an ordinary family father, who occasionally uses his automatic camera to preserve the more important moments of his life – Christmas, holidays, or even a secret outing at a topless bar. The seemingly idyllic scenes nevertheless turn absurd; in the faux amateur family photos, at times an unripe potato sun‑bathers as the mother, and at other times a participant from a Nan Goldin photograph gives an intimate massage to the father while lying on his back. Although the photos imitate the snapshot genre, placing the photographer in the frame relativises the photographer/subject position. The collage‑like compositions are, in addition, the product of painstaking, detailed labour: the models built on a tabletop required days to prepare, and the images were captured with a tiltable‑back technical camera onto a 6x9‑diapositives. Thus the staged snapshots in the series are truly as far removed from the technical attributes of the quoted snapshot genre as from a faithful representation of the reality they apparently portray. Yet we still find them chillingly real.

The first four images of the *Moment Pictures* series were shot in the spring of 2001, before the Günter and Grétel series. The image titled *Heaven* was produced after 2001 September 11.

Thanks to Imre Bukta, János Szirtes, Imre Drégely and József Mély.

Snapshots series

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