Arko Datto – WILL MY MANNEQUIN BE HOME WHEN I RETURN?

In recent years, the focus of my work has been human violence and the way its reception leaves permanent traces in the culture, restructures society and the human self. I live and work in Mexico with the aim of completing my visual research on this topic, questing after cultural movements, group activities and individual destinies which exist as a consequence of persistent violence. My goal is to be engaged from an intimate closeness in order to witness and capture the essence of these realities, strongly involve the viewers emotionally and mentally into the topics I am working with, and give the audience another perspective on why the lifestyle of these people may often appear to be controversial and condemned, while I believe the key always lies in the brutal social and political system.

I aim to give voice to the voiceless, provide visibility for people who are social outcasts and victims of injustice by presenting contemporary social conflicts in a context and narrative different from newspapers. The photographs’ focal point is some physical trace of violence (a scar, a bruise, or a symbolic conduit, while the non-physical remnants of aggression – a gaze, facial expression, pose, or some physical space accompanied by text, interviews, or even sound – are left for the viewer to interpret, thus the story can become a whole again, questioning faith, human nature and human behaviour.

Working so much with the topic of violence, my interest also turned to examine human behaviour,

I use different working methods to be engaged in the topics, as being part of the actual social groups, being engaged in their activities on a long term. For the aim of realizing my topics I use mixed mediums: working with digital and analogue techniques, switching between medium format and snapshots - depending on the context and the narrative I would like to withdraw. I try different methods to represent the actual themes, along the photographs turning the stories into books, installations, video works in order to give a wider understanding for the audience.

 

BIO

Adél Koleszár was born in 1986 in Hungary. She is a Mexico City based photographer originally from Hungary. She graduated with a Masters in Photography at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, after receiving a BA degree in Social Sciences. In the past years, she has been working in Mexico, with the aim of completing her visual research on human violence and how it restructures the society. In 2013 she arrived to the country thanks to a Mexican Governmental Artist Residency Program, in 2014 her project on contemporary religions in Mexico was selected as finalist by Magnum Photos & Ideastap Photography Award, in 2016-17 receiver of the Pécsi József Scholarship which supports the work of young Hungarian photographers.  She was the solo exhibitor of the Discovery Show section of the Fotofestiwal Lodz, her book „New Routes of Faith” was shortlisted on the Unseen Photography Dummy Award. Her work was exhibited and published widely in her country and internationally, amongst in Berlin, Mexico City, New York, Arles, Vienna, and featured on Foam Spotlight, Vice Mexico, Fotografia Magazine, Der Grief. In 2018 she was part of the British Journal of Photography Ones to watch selection, nominated for Joop Swart Masterclass and been fellow of The Robert Capa Grand Prize. Adél was a Capa Grand Prize fellow in 2017, included in British Journal of Photography Ones to Watch selection in 2018.