The exhibition puts the two artists’ works in dialogue, exploring the rules and boundaries women face throughout their lives in dictatorships and modern societies. It begins with the colonial and Salazar-era history of Portugal and expands into present-day Hungary.
Lilla Szász will present new photographic works from her ongoing project Captured Liberties (2018–) and her brand-new series, No Bread for Us at Men’s Tables (2023–). Captured Liberties explores Salazar-era womanhood through the personal story and family photo archive of Maria Teresa Braz. In these works, Szász playfully juxtaposes archival photographs with text from the seminal feminist literary collection New Portuguese Letters (published and banned in 1972).
No Bread for Us at Men’s Tables grew out of her research into the lives of women under dictatorship and her curiosity about women’s roles and the meaning of freedom in contemporary Hungarian society. The series consists of a powerful set of portraits and excerpts from interviews with women of all backgrounds, who shared their experiences with the artist throughout the past year.
Portuguese artist Rita GT’s practice explores themes of memory, identity, and human rights, often incorporating materials such as clay and food into her performances. At the opening, she will present a playful surprise intervention featuring these elements. Additionally, on October 16, the gallery will host a new iteration of her performance Like a Woman (2019–), which examines the multiple roles women navigate throughout their lives.
This performance will engage with the voices presented in Szász’s works, while leaving behind installative elements that will remain in the gallery as part of the exhibition. To further embody women’s voices, GT’s video piece Unearthing (2021) will also be featured, paying tribute “to all the women caught up in male colonial expansion, forced to leave their homes—the singers who worked in the fields for a lifetime, who brought songs, who went and did not return.” (Rita GT)