Hungarian artist Rabóczky’s exhibition opens in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia
An exhibition entitled Female Nature by Judit Rabóczky is on until November 10 in parallel in two spaces in Sofia, at the Vaska Emanuilova Gallery and at the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Institute.
The official opening is on September 10 at 6pm at the Vaska Emanuilova Gallery.
The gallery said that the starting point in the works of the Hungarian sculptor is female nature and the female body.
Seven female bodies made of recycled materials are exhibited among the ceramic figures in Vaska Emanuilova’s permanent exhibition.
“The parallel between the two authors with almost a hundred years of distance between them creates a special choreography and rhythm in the museum’s space,” the gallery said.
“Animated, self-absorbed, detached from the world around them, staring at their reflection in the mirror, these figures are in their own in-between space, where femininity oscillates uncomfortably between the sexually alluring and the menacing. It is as if they are frozen, bent, in flight, in a convulsion, finishing the narrative about the woman started by Vaska Emanuilova.”
The exhibition space of the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Institute presents the series The Mysterious Object of Desire by Rabóczky, in which the stereotypes of femininity are emptied of their content and wrapped in iron armour.
“Here, the body is missing, but the woman is present again, just as strongly and ambiguously. Delicate lace underwear and corsets clash with the material and its impenetrable durability,” the gallery said.
“The image of a woman who wears her femininity as a combat protective covering is not new, but in the hands of Rabóczky, it gains the power of a sign both exquisite and multi-layered, touching on many social stigmas that weigh like iron on feminist ideas.”
The dialogue between the two spaces and the two female authors traces not only the formal development of contemporary sculpture and the concept of the female body, but also brings these themes into focus, using mostly the contrast in materials, form and messages.
Rabóczky was born in Eger, Hungary, where she currently lives and works.
She studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Sculpture. She has had numerous institutional exhibitions, and has participated in various residencies and has been awarded individual scholarships and honours.
