CHILF Mária
Transitory Objects, 2014–2022

Installation
jacquard carpet, traditional Hungarian ladies’ gala-dress, ring, archival photos, documents, cut out photographs
Courtesy of the artist © Chilf Mária
Photo: József ROSTA © Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art

Based on a piece of material heritage, a traditional Hungarian ceremonial dress, the work of Mária Chilf takes us on a journey of research into her family history, branching out in numerous directions and then reconnecting at several points, while delving into questions of personal experience, processing and understanding the revealed past. The journey of the dress is intertwined with the development of the family’s fate, and research turns into a personal story. The artist began to explore, almost as an outsider, the personal fate of ancestors unknown to her, in a chain of significant and often tragic historical events in the course of the twentieth century. As the details are revealed and the connections are unravelled, the distance between the artist and the sources is gradually reduced. By revealing transgenerational patterns and family wounds, the work becomes part of the artist’s identity while also shaping it, and the intellectual heritage of the material artefacts is inextricably linked to the present. Chilf’s work is not only revealing but also reparative, linking the broken continuity of past and present. She weaves a narrative that not only moves the pieces of family history, but also reflects on her own present and past through the work of understanding and self-awareness. She explores the impact of the fates revealed behind the objects on herself, while reworking the memories that emerge. The work is open-ended, even irresolvable, as from time to time another detail of the past is revealed to the artist.

FEIGL Fruzsina