Monika Sigeti
PORTFOLIO
Monika Sigeti
PORTFOLIO
My art practice includes multiple mediums of art such as: photography, collage, collage-objects, drawing, painting, digital media, video, installation and performance. Topics included personal experiences, issue of identity, gender, women, feminism, close friends, intimate spaces, sex, love & hate. I am playing with the limits of identity along with the boundaries of different media especially collage. Using an auto-reflective approach to art - I’m expressing very directly my own experiences. Monika Sigeti
The work of Monika Sigeti entail a specific artistic practice, based on exploring and presenting everyday (un)ordinary human behavior through media: an urge to collect, archive, compile. In a studio setting through the act of collaging, Monika Sigeti reconstructs photographs of a collected inventory – newspapers, printed fabric, shoes, bottles of perfume, jewelry, self portraits – therefore by retaking she places them in new symbolic narratives. In her work the author paraphrases/transcribes actions in life and localizes her everyday as the context of research, appropriation and gestural intervention. Having this in mind, the photo collages of Monika Sigeti function in a successful way in pointing out general conditions in society but also the individual sociological dilemmas of the author as an individual. Andrea Palasti
Monika Sigeti Senteleki Kornela 33 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia +38163305023 www.monikasigeti.com monikasigeti@gmail.com
CURRICULUM VITAE MONIKA SIGETI - Visual Artist Born in 1979. Lives and works in Novi Sad, Serbia. EDUCATION 2011 Academy of Art, Master degree, new media art, intermedia research and methods of fine arts, SR 2003 Academy of Art, Bachelor degree, painting, Novi Sad, SR 1998 Bogdan Suput, secondary school for design, Art technician, Novi Sad, SR ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCY 2011 Cite internationale des Arts, Paris, France 2003 Real Presence 3, international workshop, Museum 25th May, Belgrade, Serbia AWARDS 2009 Third prize for photography, Žena okom žene, Photo/Cinema Association Of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2008 Premium Njaradi colony in 2008 under the Youth Pallets, Vrbas, Serbia SOLO EXIBITIONS 2016 Autosawed drawings (2000-2015), Mali likovni salon, Novi Sad 2011 Accumulation – My intimate worlds, Cultural Center of Novi Sad, Serbia 2011 Paris je t’aime – open studio, Paris, France 2010 Accumulation – Subject positioned in the false reality, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2008 She’s in Parties, interactive installation (part of Smell, try, write, curator Svetlana Mladenov), Night of Museums, Museum Of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2008 Women, collages, Cultural Center of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia 2006 At Home,..Living,..Enjoying, mixed media, Gallery Tableau, Novi Sad, Serbia 2004 The Play With Man, photo-installation, Gallery Dom Omladine, Belgrade, Serbia
GROUP EXIBITIONS 2015 THE DANUBE DIALOGUES, exhibition and art symposium Art in the age of (non) Emotionality + 12 exhibitions from individual Danubian countries, Bel Art Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia 2015 GIF & Public Urban Space, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia 2015 CONFLICTS, PROVOCATION, RELATIONS, CHALLENGES, ANXIETY, ENERGY, DECISION ... Art in the expanded field_The Art scene of Vojvodina 1995/2014, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2014 2nd Collage biennial, Cultural Institute of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2013 Flux likvida, 10th biennial watercolor, Contemporary Gallery, Zrenjanin, Serbia 2013 CLOSE-UP&BLOW-UP: Re-constructing the photographic image, U10, Belgrade, Serbia 2013 CLOSE-UP&BLOW-UP: Re-constructing the photographic image, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2012 East-West, 30x30, Contemporary Gallery, Zrenjanin, Serbia 2012 33rd meeting of watercolorist, Contemporary Gallery AC Ecka, Zrenjanin, Serbia 2011 Intimacy, Collection of Rajko Mamuzic, Novi Sad, Serbia 2011 13th Contemporary Art festival - Plein Art, Budapest, Hungary 2010 UPDATE: own (female) character, O3ONE Art Space, Belgrade, Serbia 2009 38th Novosadski Salon, Micro Maneuver, Collection of Rajko Mamuzic, Novi Sad, Serbia 2009 BEHIND THE BARRIER, Contemporary Photography From Novi Sad, Fotogalerie im Grazer Rathaus, Austria 2009 Žena okom žene, The position of women in Vojvodina - on the road to gender equality, photo exhibition, group ExPosition, The Gallery Of Photo/Cinema Association Of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Serbia 2008 37th Novosadski Salon, The Body of the New Millennium, Gallery Zlatno Oko, Novi Sad, Serbia 2008 Paint of state – state of paint, project Art in Vojvodina Now, cities of Vojvodina, Serbia 2008 Youth Pallets, Vrbas, Serbia 2007 Lollypop – Body & Consumption, Museum Of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2007 Third International exhibition of Art flags, Novi Sad, Sebia 2006 Youth Pallets, Vrbas, Serbia 2006 Terminal, Novi hram gallery, Sarajevo, BIH 2006 Gallery SULUV, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2005 TERMINAL005, balkanart festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2005 Exhibition of illustrations H.C. Andersens fairy tails, Gallery/bibliothek of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad, Serbia 2004 ANTI THESIS: Art in Vojvodina on the end of XX and beginning XXI century, Umjetnička galerija Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, BIH 2003 Step. Step forward. Two steps forward… Art in Vojvodina, New position…move over, The Center For Visual Culture - Zlatno Oko in co-operation with Museum Of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Serbia 2003 32nd Novosadski Salon, Gallery Podrum, Serbia 2003 Female Handwriting, paintings, Gallery Podrum, Novi Sad, Serbia 2003 Woman, photograph exhibition, The Gallery Of Photo/Cinema Association Of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia 2002 31st Novosadski Salon, Gallery Spens, Serbia 2002 3rd Biennal exhibition of photographs of students from The Academy Of Arts, Novi Sad in gallery ART-GET, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Oslo 2001 Iside The Circle - Galerija likovnog Kruga, Petrovaradinska tvrdjava, Novi Sad, Serbia 2001 PUBLICUM calendar - LIFE for 2002, Art station, Belgrade, Serbia 2001 XI Biennale of students drawings, Studentski grad, Belgrade, Serbia 2001 41st Golden Pen of Belgrade and 6 International Biennial of Illustrations - Gallery Progres, Belgrade, Serbia 2000 EXIT - music festival, video works, Novi Sad, Serbia
PUBLICATIONS 2015 POLJA časopis za književnost i teoriju, No 494 jul/avgust, Biblioteka Matice Srpske, Novi Sad ISSN 0032-3578 2013 CLOSE-UP&BLOW-UP: Re-constructing the photographic image, Art Space, Belgrade 2013 CLOSE-UP&BLOW-UP: Re-constructing the photographic image, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina ISBN 978-86-6333-002-3 2012 Tensionfield, Contemporary photography, Collaboration project of Photon association (Ljubljana), Cultural City Network Graz, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka and Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad 2011 Accumulation-My intimate worlds, Cultural center of Novi Sad ISBN 978-86-7931-232-1 2011 Intimnost: Galerija likovne umetnosti, Poklon zbirka Rajka Mamuzića, autor izložbe i teksta Nebojša Milenković ISBN 978-86-85365-37-9 2008 PROJEKAT Umetnost u Vojvodini, maj – decembar ISBN 978-86-905137-3-4 2008 NOVOSADSKI salon (37 ; 2008 ; Novi Sad) Telo u novom milenijumu ISBN 978-86-7931-138-2 2008 WOMEN, collages-objects, Cultural center of Novi Sad ISBN 978-86-7931-117-7 2007 Lilihip - telo i konzumacija = Lollypop - body & consumption, Sanja Kojić Mladenov ISBN -10 86-847773-31-4 2006 MADE In Novi Sad, (savremena umetnička scena) ISBN 86-909377-0-6, 2006 2004 ANTI TEZA Umetnost u Vojvodini na kraju XX i početkom XXI veka, Muzej savremene likovne umetnosti, tekst: Suzana Vuksanović, Nebojša Milenković ISBN 86-84773-06-3 2004 THE PLAY WITH MAN, Dom omladine, Belgrade ISBN 86-7698-008-X 2003 KORAK. KORAK NAPRED.. DVA KORAKA NAPRED... Umetnost u Vojvodini: Naj/Mlađi, Ne/Poznati, Ne/Prepoznati, Posebno izdanje Časopisa za kritiku, istoriju i teoriju umetnosti ANOMALIJA, Muzej savremene likovne umetnosti, Novi Sad ISBN 86-84773-09-8 2002 PUBLICUM calendar LIFE for 2002, Belgrade 2002 NOVOSADSKI salon 31, Radnički univerzitet, Novi Sad
AUTOSAVED DRAWINGS (2000-2015) 2016
Mixed media Various dimension Mali likovni salon, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2016 The exhibition consists of drawings on paper, made in different techniques: ink, pencil, pastel, charcoal, watercolor and collage. They are presented chronologically and show the development of ideas, themes, and the interest of the artist. Displayed fifteen years of collecting and documenting different moments in the life of the artist: entertainment that brought together old and new friends, intimate moments, romantic partners and emotional impressions printed on paper. Drawn albums swapped in this case the old photo albums. Autosaved drawings are stored handed situations that the artist does not want to erase from her memory.
Dunja and Uroš, ink on paper, 13x14cm, 2000.
Lonely in the bedroom, ink and acryl on paper, 18x24cm, 2002.
Affection, ink on paper, 28x38cm, 2014.
In Zorica’s bathroom, pastel and acryl on paper, 31x40cm, 2015
Unknown woman, ink and acryl on paper 32x46cm, 2015.
Self portrait with nudes, ink and acryl on paper, 30x30cm, 2012.
Self portrait with Kubrick, ink and acryl on paper, 30x30cm, 2012.
REVEALING 2013
Mixed media & In situ installation Various dimension Created for the project CLOSE-UP&BLOW-UP: Re-constructing the photographic image; Curated by Andrea Palasti Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2013 U10-ART SPACE, Belgrade, Serbia, 2013 The altar is a center of worship and ritual place. I wanted to point out the intimate, different approach to religion/spirituality – I created my own altar at which I was positioned as the main actor, the god, the victim. I do not turn to a higher power but myself. I sacrificed myself in the context of inserting woman into sacred space – atypical for women as the second sex. The materials I use are often different papers that are generally used once and thrown, but for me the papers are my precious materials to achieve the airy atmosphere that I want to highlight in my works. Also there is a photography that I use obsessively, recording every movement of my existence. This visual diary later serves me as an excellent library from which I pull out not only inspiration but also specific material for my work. So in this case I used my private photo-documentation of Versailles. I transferred the splendor of the palace into the altar.
Installation view of Revealing at the CLOSE-UP&BLOW-UP: Re-constructing the photographic image; Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2013.
Details, Revealing, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2013.
Setting the installation - Revealing, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2013.
Collages, Revealing, 2013.
Details, Revealing, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2013.
In my art practice from a personal point of view I analyze my own experience and the relationship of man and woman in the twenty-first century. Stereotypes, outdated values, conflicts and passion are part of my interest. From my position of a woman - the male-dominated world is necessary to overrule and overcome.
HIDDEN CONFLICTS 2012/13
Watercolours - autobiographic (in process) Dimension: 56x76cm Created for the project: Female group watercolors - workshop, Contemporary Gallery AC Ecka, Zrenjanin, Serbia, 2012. Curated by Slavica Popov Flux likvida, 10th biennial watercolor, Contemporary Gallery, Zrenjanin, Serbia, 2013, Curated by Sanja Kojic Mladenov Although very gentle, feminine and erotic, some of these works are on the verge of aggression and hatred. Love and hate are omnipresent, but one of them always has to overpower the other and take over more space. They as a conflicting concepts can’t one without the other. A series of watercolors present woman and her gentle, sensitive nature with all scars and trauma layers - layers that are cleverly hide beneath the apparent softness. Divided role of women carries a great burden. Might need to completely overturn traditional values in order to come up with innovative solutions in the understanding of the relationship of man and woman, and thus we can introduce a new practice in female-male relation.
Another body, watercolour, 2013.
My cold bath, watercolour, 2012.
Persecutor or love, watercolour, 2012.
Suprise, watercolour, 2012.
Birth at the family dinner, watercolour, 2012.
ACCUMULATION 2010/11
1 part of Accumulation project - Subject positioned in the false reality 2 part of Accumulation project - My intimate worlds Digital photographs, lambda prints, 15 photographs, 50x76cm Digital photo-collage, print on fabric, 100x400cm Collage objects installation, various dimensions Video, My intimate worlds (00:06:00) Gallery of Cultural Center Novi Sad, Serbia, 2011. Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2010.
These photographs represent different compositions which I formed by creating mini installations in front of natural light. They are made of papers and small elements from my surrounding, including my self-portraits printed on paper and cut afterwards. Every installation I photographed separately and disarranged it after to make another. Visual appearance of photography was affected by weather changes and time of day. Combination of light and papers, which are overlapping with other elements, makes weightless and movable pictures. All of these dazzling colors, shadows, light projections and lacy structures transmit rhythm of my emotions. I present my intimate, seemingly isolated world. Contemporary life and information availability overrun our individual reality. Installation view, Gallery of Cultural Center Novi Sad, Serbia, 2011.
Collage-objects, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2010.
Work process, installation is prepared for the photographing, 2010.
SMALL POSSESSIONS 2010
Part of Accumulation exhibition Digital photographs - lambda prints, 10 photographs Various dimension Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2010
Photographs, Small Possessions, My glass bottles, 2010.
Photography, Small Possessions, My handbags, 2010.
SHE´S ON PARTIES 2008
Collage installation and performance Dimensions: 300x100cm and 200x100cm Created for the project: Smell, Try, Write, the Night of Museums, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2008. Curated by Svetlana Mladenov Collages are part of the installation set up as hanging objects in space. I used colored cellophane so collages will become more transparent. Colored shadows appear on the walls caused by beams of light that pass through the cellophane. Shadows repeat collage, but not complete, singling out certain segments (forms).
Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2008.
From the opening, author lies down, part of performance prepared for visitors at Night of the Museums, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2008.
Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2008.
WOMEN 2008
Collage objects - installation Dimensions: approx 100x70cm Gallery of the Cultural Center of Novi Sad, 2008. The installation consists of ten collages made of thin transparent paper. They require light behind them to be viewed completely. Collages are like fabrics due to their wrinkles and junctures, female bodies are shown on them. I have presented an intimate space of women. Women are an integral part of each collage and the main topic, treated as an objects of manipulation in time in which they live - the modern absurdity. Often duplicated, merged and deformed, they reveal consciousness of women, their fear and facing with themselves and changes. They are lost in the time limits and brought into a state of rigidity, the destruction of individuality and uniqueness. Restraint before the aggressive act, tension, contiguity with madness, stillness and harmony, all is carried with them.
Collages, Gallery of the Cultural Center of Novi Sad, 2008.
WHAT IS THE ORDINARY LIFE? 2008/09
Digital photographs Various dimension Intimacy, curator Nebojťa Milenković, Collection of Rajko Mamuzic, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2011 Behind the Barrier, curator Svetlana Mladenov, Contemporary Photography From Novi Sad, Fotogalerie im Grazer Rathaus, Austria, 2009 8th Novosadski Salon, Micro Maneuver, Collection of Rajko Mamuzic, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2009
Scenes from daily life are presented. Created situations are there to imitate documentary photography. I ask the question: what is the ordinary life? I do not want to give an answer but that through the imitation of life I experience something different.The scenes were inspired by ordinary objects that surround us. I compose photographs to build more narrative units.
AT HOME,..LIVING,..ENJOYING 2006
Digital photographs Digital collages, A4 Collage-installation The Play with Man, 2002 Various dimension Part of exhibition At Home,..Living,..Enjoying, Gallery Tableau, Novi Sad, 2006. The topic that I elaborated on these small collages is the man, effeminate and androgynous in the interior or exterior. It was created after a series of photographs: The Play with Man. I used a thin, easily volatile paper that fades to light. It is drawing in combination with different types of glued paper.
Setting-up the collages, Gallery Tableau, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2006.
Collage, The Play with Man, 2002.
Installation view, Gallery Tableau, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2006.
Collages, The Play with Man, 2002.
HOME 2003
Video HOME, 01:58:00/Ambient-installation/Performance Organisation: Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri Participants: Monika Sigeti, Cecilia Hajzler Real Presence 3 - Generation 2003, International workshop, The Museum of the 25th of May, Belgrade, Serbia We decided to play and act in the project called Home, interactivelly connecting with the visitors in which they could follow the making of our artificial home, or accuratelly the replacement of the exsisting one. That space was a reflection of our inner feel of the familiar interior-house-home. That construction are made of fabrics and found furniture, as well as our own accessories which were purposly brought to contribute the whole feel of a cosy and welcoming home. Those were nostalgic recalls of our childhood and a farewell to the certain period of our lifes. In unfamiliar and new space, durring 10 days, we were playing with athmosphere and performing different actions: sewing doll clothes, baking cookies for our guests, making our bed in which we were playing with flowers, photographing the process and spontaniously capturing the moments and exibiting them afterwards. We made a border of cookies around our area, but comfortable space let and welcomed visitors in. There were no walls, but some visitors were scared to come in. Just the few of the brave came in. The project culminates on the last day - at the opening, with the arrival of more public - then the video Home was filmed. In video other people entered our little and intimate world.
From the opening Real Presence 3 , video documented performance HOME, The Museum of the 25th of May, Belgrade, Serbia, 2003.
Workshop in the process, The Museum of the 25th of May, Belgrade, Serbia, 2003.
THE PLAY WITH MAN 2002
Photographs b/w, 40 photographs, dimension: 26x37cm Photographs colour, 8 photographs, dimension: 45x60cm Lollypop – Body & Consumption, Museum Of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2007. Gallery Dom omladine, Belgrade, Serbia, 2004. The Play with Man started as a spontaneous game with my boyfriend. The story evolved during 2002 as I recognized that this game helps me canalize my ideas. I put a straight man into a transsexual role which was unpleasant and unnatural to him. As the number of photographs grow, the model responded to the game and got accustomed with the role I forced on him.
VIDEO WORKS (2005-) GIFs or intensive expressions (2015) Reflecting (2014) Immersion (2011) My intimate worlds (2003) Home
GIFs or intensive expressions
Monika Sigeti started creating artworks in form of .gif within her long practice in photography and video works, which places her among rare artists in Serbia who have a decade-long experience in artistic expression though this digital format. Her art practice includes also works in technique of collages, collages-objects, drawings, digital applications, painting, spatial installations, performances and fashion design. Regardless of the media, her visual language is very strong and recognisable. Her work is characterised by issues of intimacy, eroticism and gender, which gives to her .gif works both dimensions of artistry and critique. Shortness and ephemeral character of the format turn scenes from everyday life into works of critique that discuss on cultural politics and position of contemporary artists at the time of global migrations and travels within art projects, residencies and study trips. She approaches cities differently from tourists, but also differently from architects, urban planners or historians of architecture. In her miniature .gif studies on life, art and urban issues, Monika plays with popular city brands, approaching them as familiar, domestic sites within which each artist and citizen feels as if being at home, no matter which part of the world they are in. Sonja Jankov
Exhibited at: GIF & Public Urban Space, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia, 2015 THE DANUBE DIALOGUES, Art in the age of (non) Emotionality, Bel Art Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2015
REFLECTING, 00:15:00 (2015)
Video editing: Mobile phone *HD camera, Sony Vegas, Adobe After Effects
I recorded material - video performance for the installation - in situ. This animation is a continuation of my last work: Revealing. I used my private photo-documentation of Versailles and common Catholic religious symbols and representations. I moved pictures; in situ creating variable collages.
IMMERSION, 00:01:34 (2014)
Video editing: Mobile phone *HD camera, Adobe After Effects
Tranquility women’s movement, then passionate bodily spasm. The figures are drawn on the floor, side by side. They are sticking together and randomly touching. Encountering and splitting, irreducibility, indivisibility, the need for inverting. Indoors the bodies are curled up, limited mobility, women in their search. Swimming or sinking in itself. Own body in the plural. The bodies coalesce into a common movable form. It is a movement of melancholy. Head to head, the hair out of the hair...
MY INTIMATE WORLDS, 00:06:00 (2011)
Video & sound editing: Adobe After Effects, Sony Vegas
I have shown a mini self-portrait, summarized in likewise miniaturized videos that are intertwined. By merging seemingly opposition themes such as presence and absence, artist’s isolation and public life, illusions about their antagonisms have been deleted. Contrast of the static geometrical photo-background and nearly transparent video images represent a dream of untouchable intimacy. Boxes as geometric frames are trying to preserve the intimate worlds. This video-work was created by collecting different photo and video materials. Within it are embedded videos with pages of different magazines, video installations and short video excerpts from the private video-documented performance. At these video-clips paper-cuts with self-portrait appear, objects, transparent boxes, etc. As a basis for these short video clips I have used the photos of my installation of transparent plastic boxes and labels. The sound is obtained in a similar way - the collage. Sounds that are heard in the background: buzz of people, birds, waves and sounds of machines. http://vimeo.com/105163140
HOME, 01:58:00 (2003)
Video documented little interior as a part of the interactive installation. Real presence 2003, International workshop, Museum 25th May, Belgrade, Serbia http://vimeo.com/4841599