This Is Not a Love Talk S01E03
The Aesthetics and Politics of Identity
Moderators: Zsolt Miklósvölgyi and Barnabás Zemlényi-Kovács Barnabás
Invited guests: Gideon Horváth, Norbert Oláh and Dominika Trapp
The conversation will be in Hungarian.
The contemporary art discussion series This is Not a Love Talk, launched this spring by Trafó Gallery, began with an episode, based on related writings by Dean Kissick and Tamás Seregi, exploring how culture has "emptied" art. It examined the processes that led to a situation in which a significant part of international contemporary visual art is defined by a set of cultural and social criteria and roles that — paradoxically — seem to limit its political potential to disrupt perceptual and conceptual systems and to create new positions and realities.
Following closely on this theme, the second episode confronted two emancipatory yet opposing directions of the postcolonial turn: postmodern multiculturalism and universalist altermodernism. Drawing on Nicolas Bourriaud’s ideas, the discussion investigated why, in the (post)global curatorial ideologies of contemporary visual art, it has become more important to ask where an artist comes from — in terms of ethno-cultural background and/or marginalized social contexts — than where they are heading, and what collective goals and visions they strive toward.
In light of the first two episodes, the current third installment focuses on the increasingly central umbrella concept of identity and its complex relationship with contemporary visual art. In contrast to the more abstract and theoretical approaches of the previous discussions, this event will address the theme through the lens of specific artistic positions and creative strategies. Accordingly, the evening’s guests are three exhibiting artists from the concurrent OFF-Biennial Budapest— Gideon Horváth, Norbert Oláh, and Dominika Trapp.
Together with them, we will explore how socially coded identities can be validly elevated into both the medium and subject of autonomous artistic practices, without necessarily turning them into vehicles for didactic political messaging or arenas for postmodern competition in grievance and victimhood narratives. How can identity become a deconstructible, reassemblable, potentially radically subversive, and creatively appropriable form of autonomous artistic expression, instead of being viewed as a resource exploitable by identity politics-driven fragmentation serving neoliberal capitalist interests?
Gideon Horváth (b. 1990) studied in Paris and currently lives and works in Budapest. His main themes include ecological and queer theories, historical perspectives, and subcultures, which he explores in his sculptural works and performances. He often works with fragile yet resilient materials, such as beeswax or porcelain. In recent years, he has exhibited in major Hungarian institutions and galleries and museums across Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, France, and the UK. He received the Esterházy Art Award in 2023 and the AICA Award for Best Solo Exhibition in 2024.
Norbert Oláh (b. 1990) is a painter born in Héhalom, Nógrád County. He graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2016 under Eszter Radák. His work is defined by issues of identity, the social role of the artist, the relationship between art and power structures, and institutional critique. His painting practice combines figuration, abstraction, and conceptual approaches, often using a wide range of media and genres. Social engagement is an integral part of his artistic practice: he participates in civil initiatives, works with disadvantaged youth, and actively seeks to make contemporary art accessible to broader audiences. He has exhibited at the 2021 OFF-Biennial, the Ludwig Museum, and the acb Gallery. This year, he participates in the OFF-Biennial as both artist and curator. In 2023, he was a finalist for the Esterházy Art Award. He is the artistic director of Bura Gallery, a progressive Roma art space, and co-founder of the artist collective Cigánybűnözők (Gypsy Criminals).
Dominika Trapp (b. 1988) is a visual artist whose early work emerged from a painting background during and after her university years. Her practice soon incorporated social sensitivity and community-based art. Her works explore the intersection of internal worlds and collective self-knowledge, with particular focus on the relationship between tradition and contemporary culture, the role of women in Hungarian peasant communities, and social patterns related to body image. Her artistic research uses somatic and intuitive painting as tools of historical and social reflection. She has had solo exhibitions at Trafó Gallery (Budapest, 2020) and Karlin Studios (Prague, 2020), and has participated in international events such as the Baltic Triennial (Vilnius, 2021), Manifesta 14 (Pristina, 2022), EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial (Limerick, 2023), EKO9 Triennial (Maribor, 2024), and The Matter of Art Biennale (Prague, 2024). She has attended artist residencies in New York (Art in General), Vienna (Erste Stiftung), and Prague (FUTURA). She is currently pursuing doctoral research in the multimedia art program at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.
