Trapped
“Perhaps it doesn’t qualifyas literary exaggeration to saythat the room was full of theshadowy figures of wildvisions… One always carries hisparanoia with him whereverhe goes… We don’t reallywant to let this noise close tous, just like we refuse toacknowledge the idea of aserious sickness… Outside? TheOutside has its own insidetoo…”
—Remembrance of West Berlin(1987) byGyorgy Konrad
Giant
“In West Berlin on Stayloyalstreet/I had pizza dinner in front of arestaurant/with four or five othertables next to mine,/all empty,/maybe because of the black rainthat was dripping…/A tiny waiterstopped by my table:/“Mr. Goliath, am I right?”/To my affirmative answer, he gaveme a letter/And while I was looking for thesender,/He hit my face with a hot Cheese,/tomato and salami topped pizza./… the big house started spinning/before me I was lying on the/cobblestone in the rain/And knew Iwas going to die hungry –/The corpse ravaged by a hundredrats/ A thousand flies covering dead rats,/The small eats the bigger –/Times are tough for Goliath/Times are good for little David.”
—On Stayloyalstreet(1982) byIstvan Eorsi
The Boy
“Everything has a sense, ameaning. Everything is a partofsomething, fits intosomething… but it seems asthough this somehow doesn’tapply to Berlin, to West Berlinmore precisely. This is why Imostly stayed home, curledup, seeing the spy and theenemy in everybody… Thiswas even worse thanloneliness… a vacuum, a holethat cannot be filled, athrobbing, aching wound…Despite all this, I long for itnow because back then Mwas still with me… and weplayed with marbles in thehall of our apartment…“
—Berlin Battle(1988) by Imre Oravecz
Currywurst
“The starting point has to be thisinteraction, the gentle interplay between being touched and untouchable,of being familiar anda stranger.It is present but abstract atthe same time. Being home,no matter how relative it is, is always routine and repetition…”
—The Red Lion (2002) by Lajos Parti Nagy
In Vain
“If the most important thingis freedom, the devil wouldn’tpossibly want more than totake it from one by bindingthem to bad habits. Thesehabits then drag the soul toignorance and an animalisticexistence… She went to thewindow and stared at thedark, empty streets throughthe curtain. She slowlyunderstood that she was lost.She had fallen in love withthat man…”
—Black Berlin Notebook(1997) byErno Sziv
Couple in Bed
“Isn’t this shock I act tomyself just a stage? After all,what is a play but an effort ofthe inevitable present toexperience the pastor thefuture? … The stage only makesthis constant confusion of timeand space visible… if I make myself disappear from my own present as anexperiment! If my imaginationplaces it on a stage… ‘What a play! But it’s only a play!…’”
—Berlin Grey(1973) byPeter Nadas
Crystal Night
“The object of the rageusually remains indefinite.Onecan only decipher the trail ofthis anger. Rain was drippingfrom the alder: a tap hasbeen opened and the tubesfixed on the branches startedspraying water. The man, withthe hammer held against hischest, was soaking under thetree on the sunny square, hisface indifferent…”
—Mystery (2004) byZsolt Lang
My photographic work evolves into contemporary tales about human subconscious, reflecting surrealist qualities while playing with reality. I love the reconstructing capacity of photography that by transforming elements from the existing world it shows us a parallel universe, and leads back to something faithful at the same time. The intellectual and artistic ground of the ’50s and ’60s is a great source of inspiration for my art. I feel connected to this era, as the complexity experienced in art, when artists began to examine critically the disconnection of the image from reality. Even the esthetical appearance of this era, literature through movies, has the biggest impact on my visual thinking and on my life as a woman as well.
I’m interested in exploring my own female self, and femininity in general terms. Adopting a deceptively childlike charm, my work transports the viewer into a feminine surrealist wonderland, a fairytale-like environment that explores the “in-between”, the tension that lies both within the physical and psychological space of the female identity.
My most recent series Berlin bhf. (bahnhof) was inspired by Hungarian authors’ Berlin experiences. I fragmented their works, creatingnarratives reacting to each of them. The concept is entirely rooted in intimate issues of my personal life, through which I could emphasize Berlin being a transitory state, as a habitat of passengers, temporary home for these authors. Even though these writings are inspirational, text and image work together as a puzzle here. The scenes take places in different interiors of a fictive Berlin, showing feelings and relations through these moments of transition. With the narrative capacity of photography I wanted to emphasize that the image is frozen in time, and there is no before or after told. Only this moment exists in the present with the permanent feeling of outcast, rootlessness and the desire of being integrated.
Anna Tihanyi received herMA in communications at the JATE University with athesis themed in photography: “Stills in Motion.” Twice, she received a grant from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Hungary, and became a member of the Studio of Young Hungarian Art Photographers (FFS).With her series Berlin bhf., Tihanyi has won the 3rd prize at the European Month of Photography Festival in Ljubljana, Honorable Mention at the Moscow International Foto Awards, and debuted in a solo show in the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest, Hungary. She has been selected to participate and exhibit the series at NordArt International Art Exhibition in Germany, and been nominated for submitting the same series to the prestigious Prix Pictet Award.
Tihanyihas been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She is currently working on her next project “Character Assassination” in Budapest, Hungary.
