Ilona Németh 2013

• Floating Gardens00:00:00.000
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• Two floating islands, French and English garden, full of plants and flowers in the centre of Košice,00:00:03.947
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• European city of culture 2013, both on halted mill drive, where the river Hornád used to flow.00:00:07.842
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• It is the project of the artist Ilona Németh, into which she has involved public - gardeners chosen by adverts.00:00:11.522
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• The installation is part of the project Water Back in City culminating in June 2013 and opening the discussion.00:00:16.344
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• "If we went to the stream bed, it wouldn´t be so windy."00:00:20.133
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• Ilona Németh is one of the most significant figure of Slovak visual art.00:00:29.495
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• In 1998 she obtained prestigeous award Young Artist of the Year.00:00:32.442
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• She represented Slovakia on international biennial in Venice, her works were exposed00:00:35.305
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• in galleries all over the world - in Tokyo, Osaka, New York and Helsinki.00:00:37.203
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• The project Floating Gardens was made two years ago in Budapest,00:00:44.214
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• at the occassion of exhibition Art on Lake,00:00:48.043
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• where I got the invitation from Szepeszeti museum to make a project00:00:53.416
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• for water surface on the lake, and I was considering what would be most suitable.00:00:57.510
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• I was always interested in islands, as it is closed space under control of people.00:01:04.996
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• You can control everything what is going on there on the island.00:01:12.819
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• First I was thinking of the island for myself, of a pool floating on the lake.00:01:18.393
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• Then I had an idea of gardens, I was always interested in garden00:01:25.312
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• architecture as it is also a space controlled by man, where one can00:01:29.733
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• have a feeling of being a creator making selection of the plants,00:01:35.297
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• and decide about the form the plants.00:01:39.846
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• I started to study gardens and basic types - French and English,00:01:42.994
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• then I decided to make two islands - each one having different garden.00:01:49.319
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• I made French garden in order to make it completely affected by man,00:01:58.378
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• and English garden to make it of different character, more free.00:02:05.436
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• There have to be two gardens to be in competition,00:02:10.585
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• so that the one working in one garden sees the other garden as a competitor.00:02:13.084
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• This space is excellent for the project because it is necessary to revive the flowerbed and00:02:21.548
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• body of water and space around, I have chosen this space also for the bus stop,00:02:27.460
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• near here and the staircase, so people can see it while waiting for the bus00:02:33.670
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• from the bus or sitting at the stairs.00:02:39.927
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• A person taking care of the garden is chosen with the help of an advert.00:02:42.787
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• So we put an advert to paper, webpage for gardeners and on facebook.00:02:47.918
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• This way I found people - two women working in one garden.00:02:57.761
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• Then we drew lots to choose the garden.00:03:01.040
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• At the moment an IT specialist takes care of French garden.00:03:03.569
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• The cooperation is interesting, the women I mentioned they are writing00:03:08.231
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• a blog about it, and we communicate through e-mails with the other person.00:03:13.616
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• Another project exhibited in Košice since April is Mirror, it is in city center00:03:23.189
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• and still it seems quite discreet, now the title is Mirror for Košice,00:03:29.716
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• because the work was made several years ago00:03:34.655
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• together with the architect Marián Ravasz.00:03:38.167
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• Originally it was built in Gyor, in front of the statue of a nationalist memorial.00:03:40.651
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• The idea was to build a mirror to any thought such as nationalism,00:03:50.794
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• that was the reason - when you put a mirror to something, you confront00:03:55.361
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• yourself with something you need to define anyhow or express an opinion.00:04:05.720
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• You cannot escape yourself in the mirror.00:04:13.085
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• When we started to search in Košice in cooperation with00:04:17.246
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• local architects and they suggested the memorial opposite the Aupark,00:04:22.402
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• next to Dargov, that is kind of invisible memorial00:04:29.423
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• in the middle of trees in the park, a memorial of World War II.00:04:34.515
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• So that is another thing that nationalism in 19th century,00:04:37.624
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• but on the other hand, fascism is something that is coming back00:04:41.160
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• as well as hatred among the nations and races.00:04:45.741
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• We may point out the memorial, as we divert it from its original place with the mirror.00:04:50.153
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• It changes the position and on the other hand we can point out the idea.00:04:56.855
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• Also we can give the passers-by the food for thought.00:05:06.559
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• The memorial is on the axis of the main square, so it came out to be confronted00:05:18.282
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• with people passing by from the square.00:05:31.466
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• I´m Marian Ravasz, architect from Dunajská Streda and Ilona´s husband,00:05:39.785
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• we cooperate since the beginning, our cooperation started with sharing00:05:44.296
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• the views and then we did bigger things - as an architect00:05:51.814
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• I contribute technically and also by other way of thinking.00:06:00.356
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• I focus on architecture of family houses and hotels, guest houses and blocks of flats.00:06:06.684
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• My wife usually has an idea, then it needs to be considered on other level00:06:17.837
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• to make it feasible, safe and funtional, even if sometimes it is on the edge.00:06:29.836
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• This is the way we cooperate.00:06:40.717
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• I dont know what is the future of my works, since they are00:06:44.246
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• of different character as the memorials usually are, they are mostly made of00:06:47.031
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• permanent materials and people are not used to take care of it.00:06:52.261
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• It is something active - we need to think over new character of memorial,00:06:57.112
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• and what the contemporary object in public space should be.00:07:06.978
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• I´m trying to make the objects in interaction with its surroundings,00:07:11.508
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• and to think whether we want a memorial for hundreds years,00:07:16.073
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• or we want to draw people´s attention to something or to bring joy as for the gardens.00:07:22.500
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• So the community has difficult task, since they need to take care of the object,00:07:28.178
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• in order to preserve it, if people like it.00:07:34.934
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• I think that the statue may survive, we will see00:07:39.967
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• what will happen, we cannot know the future.00:07:42.920
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• Recently I have been to Košice quite often and I was also invited00:07:45.911
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• by Zuzana Patáková for Biela Noc, but I couldn´t make it, though00:07:52.779
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• I like being in Košice - I´m taking part in X apartments,00:07:57.938
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• it was very interesting call, since Im not a performer,00:08:01.685
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• I sometimes do performances, but I´m not an actress.00:08:06.263
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• In this project there has to be a lively moment during the performance,00:08:10.103
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• which takes 10 minutes, we can rather call it an intervention into00:08:15.427
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• the privacy of other person.00:08:21.031
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• When I came to Košice, I could see five flats,00:08:22.621
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• based on this the district Stará Baštová was very appealing to me.00:08:26.113
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• I could see two flats there, I have chosen the flat and00:08:39.725
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• Im currently working together with Mr. Tóth and his family.00:08:43.965
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• It is interesting, you come to a flat, not knowing the people there and00:08:48.641
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• you start to talk - it may happend that the artist comes with an idea00:08:52.727
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• that he carries out and tries to convince the people living in the flat,00:08:58.734
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• or another way is to come there with eyes wide open and listen to people00:09:03.155
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• and decide upon the things that are appealing to you.00:09:09.484
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• It was quite clear there - people there were open to cooperate,00:09:15.714
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• spectators can get into the living room of their private flat.00:09:18.731
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• This film talks about two people that were separated in 194600:09:24.673
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• during one night August 30th and it was separation for 60 years.00:09:45.123
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• And this is his home village and we are visiting his house.00:09:56.206
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• And here you can see me and my sister, and brother was not yet born,00:10:02.486
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• he is 5 years younger, the border at that time looked this way,00:10:09.253
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• Between two fences there were Soviet soldiers standing guards driving UAZ cars,00:10:20.769
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• and riding horses. We were throwing them the cheapest cigarettes Detva,00:10:30.897
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• and they were throwing us badges.00:10:45.543
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• My wife also comes from Velké Slemence, she lived her childhood in this village.00:10:51.298
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• My parents have relatives on the other side in Ukraine,00:11:00.054
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• which they couldn´t see for decades.00:11:09.450
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• Half of the cemetery was in Czechoslovakia, and another half in Soviet Union.00:11:14.242
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• Here are buried also my grand parents, and here is the grave of my wife´s parents.00:11:20.484
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• Later the borderline was moved to its current place where we saw00:11:27.081
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• the guard tower, it was moved about 150 metres.00:11:31.309
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• In 2005 small border crossing was opened to make families come together,00:11:36.515
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• but the original intention was not satisfied, because Ukrainians need visa00:11:43.737
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• to get to our country and Slovaks go there to buy sweets, alcohol and cigarettes.00:11:50.439
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• This is for you, keep it for the memory.00:12:00.605
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• Thank you for the visit.00:12:07.446
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• That were Velke and Male Slemence.00:12:09.262
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• I had more activities during two weeks, various exhibitions00:12:14.597
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• in different towns and places, I was in Athens, then my son00:12:15.598
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• installed an interactive installation in Austria and last week there was00:12:23.898
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• second performance Hmly, it came out from the project in cooperation00:12:32.769
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• with Verejný podstavec in Námestie Slobody, first art project was Athamer and00:12:44.123
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• second project was mine, main thought was to reset the square00:12:51.646
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• with the help of fog - you get to the square burdened with historical layers,00:12:58.562
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• then the fog erase the space at least for a while, so you cannot see it.00:13:03.493
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• When the fountain comes out of the fog, one can think of it in other way.00:13:11.925
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• My aim was to reset the place.00:13:20.355
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• We managed to repeat it on September 27th,00:13:23.990
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• there was life performance and there will be a film made00:13:27.884
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• together with Martina Slováková, and it will be a work of art itself,00:13:39.323
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• as a documentary of the happening, but also as a separate work of art.00:13:43.677
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• The square looked best under the light at 7 am,00:13:50.131
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• We did tests during the day, but there was too much direct light,00:13:54.859
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• and in the evening the square looks quite different as under the sun.00:14:01.968
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• We needed the morning light and I think it might be an experience,00:14:07.041
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• when you come to an unusual place at unusual time and we also opened00:14:12.895
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• Department of Architecture of Technical University that is on the square,00:14:18.061
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• and people could get on the 4th floor and look down on the square.00:14:23.249
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• People which haven´t seen it may see it in the film,00:14:31.836
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• but I think personal experience is more interesting.00:14:40.478

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