#imagination #security #rearmament
The EU is rearming. But who actually feels safer because of it? Is it really true that if we don't kill, we'll be killed? Or can we imagine, together, a different kind of war?
In this collaborative work by Judit Böröcz, Bence György Pálinkás, and Tímea Török, created at the intersection of art and social action, audience members become active participants. Drawing on a research-based text montage, the work unfolds alternative concepts of national defense while inviting participants to experiment with a subverted version of the "war game" used in military strategic modeling.
Can we have a say in how the state defines security and how it spends public money? Who will fight tomorrow's wars, and what decisions will they be expected to make? When will we have the opportunity to debate these questions? Rather than beginning from a utopian vision, the performance starts from concrete, existing practices—from techniques already tested on a smaller scale, such as so-called "less-lethal weapons" and forms of unarmed civilian defense. Perhaps it is not yet too late to imagine the reality in which we would like to live.
Judit Böröcz has worked in the fields of culture and the performing arts since 2006, in both institutional and independent contexts. She is currently a freelance researcher and collaborative performance maker working across performing arts and multidisciplinary projects, and a member of the Dutch-Hungarian artistic collective SPACE. Her work Singing Youth (2021), created together with Bence György Pálinkás and Máté Szigeti and premiered at Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, has been presented at international festivals including Wiener Festwochen, BITEF, and Divadelná Nitra. Together with Bence György Pálinkás, she also created the sound walk The Little Melting Pot for OFF-Biennale Budapest. Her work focuses on Eastern European historical narratives and depolarization, nationalism and propaganda, and the intersection of art and social action.
Bence György Pálinkás creates text-based, visual, and performative works addressing political and social issues. Working collaboratively with different artists, he develops documentary theatre productions, workshop-based exhibition projects, and open-ended educational workshops in public schools. His previous productions presented at Trafó include Hungarian Acacia, created with Kristóf Kelemen, and Singing Youth, created with Judit Böröcz and Máté Szigeti. His works have been presented at major international festivals and institutions including Wiener Festwochen, Spielart Festival, HELLERAU, BOZAR Brussels, and the Sharjah Art Foundation. In the field of visual arts, he has participated in projects at OFF-Biennale Budapest, the Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara, the tranzit.org network, and Vienna's Museum of Ethnology. His educational projects are developed in collaboration with organizations including the Democratic Youth Foundation (DIA) and the Tom Lantos Institute.
Tímea Török is an artist and facilitator working in community arts and applied theatre. She led the Thought Generator workshop at Trafó House of Contemporary Arts for two years, was a member of the ÖrkényKÖZ workshop, and is the founder of the Parallel Creative Group, through which she develops independent community-based art projects in collaboration with diverse groups and non-professional participants. Through performances and workshops created in various collaborations, she initiates collective reflection on social issues. Her projects have been presented at events and venues including OFF-Biennale Budapest, the Flaszter Budapest Public Art Biennial, the Budapest Spring Festival, and Germany's HochX Theater and Lichthof Theater.
Created by: Judit Böröcz, Bence György Pálinkás, Tímea Török
Technical director: Balázs Szabon
The production has been created with the support of the Staféta Program funded by the Municipality of Budapest.
