Baby is a research-based multimedia performance project that integrates choreography with multi-modal AI technologies to explore the functioning of art collectives as a form of care-work and an alternative to the nuclear family model. The project’s point of departure is Hollow, a multidisciplinary group Viktor Szeri and Tamás Páll co-founded with Gyula Muskovics in 2018. Adding to Hollow’s earlier projects, which view art-making as a form of world-making, the artists in this new piece approach the performance they are about to create as parents planning to have a baby. They draw parallels between caring for a child and nurturing their collective through creation, recognizing that a group, like a child, must be birthed, nurtured, and loved, and is significantly influenced by the context in which it is born. The project asks how do we relate the functions of collective parenting to participatory performance, how can we queer care work, and what role could technology play in this within a theatrical setting? Additionally, in the backdrop of Baby is the scene in which the artists are actively involved, which they consider their extended, chosen family. In this context, the act of creation—against the current political atmosphere in Hungary—becomes a form of resistance and the ultimate means of survival for the community.
Viktor Szeri
Viktor Szeri is an independent performer and choreographer based in Budapest. In their multi-disciplinary pieces, the interplay of different art forms and visual solutions can be observed. Their spontaneous and improvisational processes are usually motivated by a desire to express a mood or a feeling. Yet, dance always plays a crucial role in their work as a language through which imperfect, transient and vulnerable bodies can break free of the constraints and norms society imposes on them. They have been awarded several scholarships and residencies across Europe. Their piece “fatigue” was awarded the Rudolf Lábán Prize 2023 by the independent performing arts scene in Hungary and was selected to be part of the Aerowaves “Twenty24 Artists” network. Since 2020, they have been involved as an organizer in the Under500 interdisciplinary performing arts festival in Budapest and in 2018, they founded the artist group Hollow with Tamás Páll and Gyula Muskovics, with whom they have worked regularly ever since.
Links: https://viktorszeri.com, https://hollow.systems, https://www.instagram.com/viktor_szeri
Tamás Páll
Tamás Páll is an interdisciplinary artist from Budapest, working with digital media, installation, game design and performance. His works interweave Eastern European political narratives, subcultures, techno-scientific worldviews and non-human storytelling among others. His projects are often based on long-term worldbuilding. The stories, installations and performances that channel his para-fictional worlds are often fragmented and malleable as they materialize. Páll is a PhD candidate at the University of Applied Arts Vienna’s Artistic Research program, where he explores new forms of collective world-making through game mechanics and computational simulation. He is a co-founder of the artist group Hollow with whom they create speculative live performances and cross-reality installations that revolve around the human body, club culture and alternative communities. His works have been showcased in numerous venues across Europe and the US and he participated in several individual and group residencies in New York, Prague, and Berlin, among other cities.
Links: https://www.tamaspall.com/, https://hollow.systems, https://www.instagram.com/tomipall/
MODINA Residency
The 8-week MODINA residency for the development of this project will take part place at Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, between 20/Jan – 16/Mar 2025, with technical mentoring by University of Lisbon, Interactive Technologies Institute. MODINA is co-funded by the European Union.