Part of Trafó’s transdisciplinary focus work-free-time.

The two artist duos Haibo Illés & Richárd Melykó and Maja Juhász & Luca Kovács collaborate for the first time to create a new performance that maps the workings of the sex industry in Hungary, examining its contested relationship to labor. Drawing on shared fieldwork, they reflect on the experiences, internal conflicts, and ethical dilemmas they encountered, while actively confronting their differing perspectives.

“We are shaking the support structures of Hungarian sexual hegemony. Piece by piece, we will dismantle it. We are making a documentary performance with our bare hands–because energetic performers are a sought-after workforce, their instincts are brutally productive!

(From this point on, however, we are no longer sure that creating this research-based performance was truly our own choice. Just as we cannot be certain whether those who work in the Hungarian sex industry do so voluntarily, or whether they are involuntarily reinforcing this patriarchal economy of pleasure.)

tap for more (instructions for interacting with the screen: gently with your pinky finger, and we wait for you with open arms).”

This performance is born out of the encounter and fusion of two distinct artistic practices. Maja Juhász and Luca Kovács–creators of the autobiographical series mostakkor (undjetzt)–are known for their humor and their refreshingly DIY approach and active fieldwork, Haibo Illés and Richárd Melykó have a more conceptual take on performance with sharp social and cultural-political observations rooted in research-based art.