Dorottya Vekony - Fertility

2020-2023

The photo-based installation Fertility displays the symbolic possibilities of women relating to each-other and to a community. The imagery is fragmented and rugged, where the emphasis is not on the personality but the subjects’ spatial position and interrelation. The individual bodies and shapes are so integral, that it is difficult to know whether they serve a protective, a disjunctive or a temporary purpose. Besides personal aspects, the topicality of the subject comes from recent public discussions about reproductive rights in Hungarian media and politics. Thus, I have examined the expectations regarding female roles and the female body, its options for action, its status and representation. The other half of the project consists of glass plate photographs about birth, delivery and fertility. The scenes are reconstructions of contemporary rites; ready mades and performances immersed in folk- and tribe rituals but always believing in the healing power of temporary communities. The scenes tackle the impact of the desire for reproduction and societal pressure on the female psyche and body. The project further questions the active options for action of the female body, and how it can be represented in a changed social order, achieved on its own right.

Paris Photo 2024 – Grand Palais, Paris
Emergence Section
13-16. november, 2025
Represented by Longtermhandstand

Kunsthalle Wien
Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat
29. november, 2023 – 14. april, 2024
Curated by Laura Amann

Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Esterházy Art Award – BREAKING THE FRAME MAKING FUTURE
15. december, 2023 – 3. march, 2024
Curated by Witus Veh

Museum Kiscelli, Budapest
Leopold Bloom Art Award shortlist exhibition
04. june – 02. july, 2023
Curated by Dalma Eszter Kollár, Benedek Farkas

Budapest Gallery
Rites of Letting Go
24. february – 22. april, 2023
Curated by Flóra Gadó