2024
How does Dorottya Vékony relate to combat sports, which are mostly associated with masculine energies? How does she appropriate and re-contextualize boxing and open up space for others within it? What kind of boxing club could the gallery host? And how can this space—both in art and in real life—become a supportive space for collaboration and (female) community building?
For this exhibition, she uses the women’s boxing club she founded as a starting point, which is a form of ”training” where the emphasis is on the diversity of the participants, their different life experiences, and being together, holding space, and practicing, rather than defeating each other.
Of course, this approach is not unfamiliar in classic combat sports, but in Vékony’s case, boxing becomes almost an excuse for women to feel liberated together, to relax in their bodies and realize that they are not alone with their anxieties. Here, there is room to lose, to fall, to be fragile and vulnerable—and this is when the space opens up for empathy, solidarity with others, and sisterhood. And it is just as important to practice together what it means to be resilient and to move forward in situations that often seem unimaginable.
Text by Fóra Gadó
Solo show
Longtermhandstand, Budapest
17 September – 2 November, 2025
Longtermhandstand, Budapest
17 September – 2 November, 2025
Curated by Péter Bencze
Photos: Áron Weber
Photos: Áron Weber
