Viktor Szeri x Cal Mac Artist Talk
program:
(fatigue at Trafó’s Main Stage from 20h)
Cal Mac: Agony to Ecstasy film screening
Followed by: Artist Talk between Viktor Szeri and Cal Mac
The events co-curator and moderator: Krisztián Gábor Török
The conversation following Viktor Szeri’s performance of "fatigue" and the screening of Cal Mac’s two video works will bring together different disciplines, weaving dance and movement with moving image-making while contemplating universal themes of the 21st century: burnout, identity addictions, escapism and our communal thirst for connection.
Cal Mac’s work delves into the shared addictive tendencies within Scottish society by showcasing the contrasting emotions of suffering and delight, tension and ease. It utilizes the settings of natural surroundings and the clubbing scene to dissect our current emotional condition. Viktor Szeri's solo performance, "fatigue," confronts burnout directly, employing choreography founded on weariness and a yearning for nothing. His work uses dance as a language for liberation from societal standards, inviting the audience to connect with the subdued visions, prompting reflections on their own experiences with exhaustion, lethargy, and societal pressures.
Cal Mac (UK) is a visual artist working and living in Glasgow. Working between sculpture, sound print and video, he explores themes of belonging and addiction through sociological, scientific and visual dialogues. His work often looks at clubbing and natural environments, enquiring into our current emotional condition and need for connection. His work has been screened at Atlas Arts (Skye), The Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh), Limerick Institute of Technology, online for Lift off Festival, and Film and Video Umbrella. Following his first commission from Film and Video Umbrella in 2020, Mac has done residencies at Cove Park and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. In 2021 Mac was shortlisted for the Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award. He is the 2023 recipient of the Margaret Tait Residency and is currently working on what it means to be LGBT in rural Scotland.
Viktor Szeri (Hungary) is an independent performer and choreographer based in Budapest. In his multidisciplinary pieces, the interplay of different (performing) art forms and visual solutions can be observed. His spontaneous and improvisational creative processes are usually motivated by a desire to express a mood or a feeling. Yet, dance always plays a crucial role in his work: for him, it is a language through which the imperfect, transient and vulnerable human body can break free of the constraints of social norms. 2018 he founded the artist group Hollow with Tamás Páll and Gyula Muskovics. Recently, he has been awarded several scholarships and residencies in Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Istanbul, Warsaw, Tbilisi, and Minsk. His works have been presented at Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, MU Theatre, DunaPart - Platform for Contemporary Performing Arts, art quarter budapest, Studio of Young Artists' Association, Placcc Dance, and various festivals and venues in Europe.
The program is part of The Art of Being Me artist talk series aiming at promoting dialogue on identity questions that are reflected in the work of the artists involved. The project is curated by Noémi Herczog and Krisztián Gábor Török
The events co-curator and moderator: Krisztián Gábor Török
The event is co-organised by EUNIC, the British Council, LUX Scotland and Trafó.
The program is held in English with Hungarian translation.
Screening Cal Mac: Agony to Ecstasy (2020) 12’40
Agony to Ecstasy explores poignant questions of addiction, intimacy and belonging through club nostalgia.
‘Agony to Ecstasy’ looks at the scope of the socio-addictive condition within Scottish people. It focuses on the relationship between pain and pleasure, between stress and relief and between entrapment and escape. The film is a dissection of two spaces – euphoric clubbing and silent Scottish nature, offering a perspective on our need for salvation within both. Neurologically, there is very little difference between the brain addicted to something, as to when falling in love. As a result, the film fluctuates between these neurological and personal perspectives on addiction and connection – where their conflating and often paradoxical relationship is compared.
The film was commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella in 2020.
