Megadás/Surrender

Solar dyed cotton flag; community installation/performance, Ertém Residency, 2018 HUN

In the summer of 2018 I was invited to join ÉrTEM residency set in a small Hungarian village, Gömörszölös, of 80 inhabitants with eight other artist to create works on location. A serene paradise with overloaded plum trees, vegetable gardens, old machinery, and rooster-wake-up-alarms. I was curious for the people of this village and their rhythm that seemed so different from city life and I decided to get to know them. Equipped with a suitcase and a note written on a pizza box in Hungarian I went around town: ”Hi, I’m Nina. I’m looking for unused rusty tools for an art project. Do you have any? Thank you.”

After two days I had collected an inventory of friendly faces and a suitcase full of rusty objects. Here the people were constantly on their feet to work with the land: taking care of the gardens, the lawns, their houses and animals. Everything seemed to be in a circular state of transformation. The only still remains were man-made tools that had lost their function.

To create a portrait of the people of Gömörszölös I printed their rusty tools on a sheet with elderberry juice and made a flag, which was planted on top of the hill over-looking the village to visualise the circular motion of working with the land, our dependency on the seasons, and the remains of human activity.

Here we will surrender to the sun, wind, and rain and slowly fade with time.

A clip from the local Hungarian ‘Putnok Városi Televízió’. For the whole video click here.

The catalogue from ÉrTEM residency.