Katalin Ladik (Novi Sad, 1942) is one of the leading figures in Central and Eastern European art. The multilingualism of her native town, the former Yugoslavian city of Novi Sad, shaped Ladik’s visual approach to language and poetry. She started out as a poet, and it was through the publication of his poetry that she came into contact with the Vojvodina-based New Symposion, the only Hungarian-language avant-garde journal in the second half of the 1960s.
In the 1960s, she became a member of the conceptualist Bosch+Bosch group and a leading figure in the literary and artistic avant-garde in Novi Sad. In 1978, her visual poems and collages were exhibited at the Venice Biennale. From 1977 to 1992 she was an actor at the Novi Sad Theatre, and in the 1980s she was a singer with the Boris Kovač Orchestra.
She was awarded the Lajos Kassák Prize in 1991, the Attila József Prize in 2001 and the Lennon-Ono Peace Prize in 2016 by Yoko Ono. In 2012 she won the Laurel Wreath of Hungary Award and in 2017 she was invited to the documenta in Kassel. Since the mid-1970s, she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her most recent solo exhibition, O00000000-pus 2023, was at Haus der Kunst in Munich and travels to the Ludwig Forum in Aachen. She lives and works in Budapest and on the island of Hvar, Croatia.
Ladik works in diverse media such as concrete and visual poetry, performance, sound art and sculpture. Reflection on the role of women is central to her performances. For this multifaceted artist, the body also gives birth to poetry. She questions gender roles and female archetypes, using her body and voice as a tool and medium.
The exhibition presents Ladik’s body art works and her emblematic early surrealist performances, mainly through photographic and video works.