What are the desires of a father of four? How does a concealed abortion affect a woman’s willingness to give birth and her attitude to young children? What happens when a mother reveals that she regrets having given birth to her children? Ida Csapó and Olga Kocsi’s joint exhibition MODEL FAMILY reflects on family patterns, values and traditions through personal and transgenerational stories. The artworks, created in a variety of media, explore the often taboo questions surrounding childbearing, abortion, male-female relationships and the role of women in maintaining the family.

Ida Csapó has worked as a journalist, typist, stenographer, craftswoman, women’s self-awareness trainer, founder/leader of women’s organizations, and has turned to the visual arts in the last ten years. Her 2019 exhibition at the FERi feminist project gallery, titled Egy né a sok közül, paid tribute to the life of her mother, who, apart from managing the family household and raising four children, was a working woman. For the past six years, Csapó’s artistic practice has focused on her parents’ legacy, but her works at the Liget shift the focus from the female perspective to male protagonists, with the conviction that patriarchy is also harmful to men. Drawing on letters, poems and objects left behind by her father and grandfather, Csapó explores hidden family traumas lurking beneath the surface. Her delicately sewn textile works, assemblage and site-specific interventions explore the insatiable longing of her father to produce a son in the family of four daughters.

Olga Kocsi is a visual artist, electrician, carpenter and media designer who joined the exploration of the Csapó family history upon the gallery’s invitation. Her multimedia installation is sensitively linked to the Csapó legacy, but also places the exhibition on a new timeline by incorporating the voice of her fellow artist into the space, with a similar formal and conceptual solution to her earlier work Rózsa Mama (2019). As a result of this intimate collaboration, snippets of Kocsi’s personal history also appear in the space, bringing into dialogue the different family patterns inherited by the two.

Curated by Veronika Molnár
Curatorial Assistant: Hanna Claris
Special thanks to CAPA Center

Photos by Barnabás Neogrády-Kiss