Masterwork

Info

In this collaborative piece by Adél Juhász and Csaba Molnár, they explore the objectification of the body during the process of it becoming a simple tool of illustration. Each and every body is a masterpiece in its own right, created by the self and the environment. However, at the same time, they are also a surface for conscious and unconscious demonstrations. This demonstrative power of the body gives way to the impersonal application of a particular set of tools.

Borrowing inspiration from the Bauhaus school of thought and from the Triadic Ballet, this piece explores ways for the body to shed cultural inscriptions and symbols which have been projected into it over the course of time. Employing objects as costumes that impede movement and give it a mechanical tinge, the body is required to reforge its autonomy in a flurry of functional obstructions. How can it use these forms to create new meaning?

The body as a masterpiece contains the recollection of practice and is the terrain for recalling at the same time. It defines the self and all of its possibilities. Modifying the body is a way to manipulate the surroundings and to summon the freedom to redefine.

Emese CUHORKA
Dancer, teacher, choreographer, graduated at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy in 2011. She has been working with Adrienn Hód since 2007, and has been a member of Hodworks since 2009.
In her works she addresses experimenting, interested in situations which set the forms and substances free from their fixity: various street actions, interactions and performances, cooperations with theatre (TÁP Színház, Dollár Papa Gyermekei), contemporary dance and improvisation workshops for amateurs and professionals, movement research with László Fülöp, the artistic recontextualization of subcultures with Csaba Molnár.
Until now she participated as a creator and performer in 6 performances which won the Lábán Rudolf Prize (Hodworks: Basse danse (2011), Dawn (2013), Timothy and the Things: There’s an elephant in every room… (2014), Hodworks: Grace (2016), Hodworks: Solos (2017) and Emese Cuhorka-Csaba Molnár: Masterwork (2019).
The production ‘Sea Lavender’ in collaboration with The Symptoms company won the Special Prize of Hungarian Theatre Critics Awards 2016. The documentary based on the rehearsals of this piece, called The Euphoria of Being won the main prize of the Locarno Film festival and the human rights prize of the Sarajevo Film festival.
Three pieces she collaborated in with Hodworks were also selected by Aerowaves as the most outstanding dance performances of Europe: Basse danse, Dawn, Conditions of being a mortal. The performance of Timothy and the Things titled Your mother at my door co-choreographed by Emese was also selected in the 20 most pre-eminent productions by Aerowaves in 2016.

Csaba MOLNÁR (dancer, choreographer)
Born in 1986, he began his professional training at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy, after which he completed a two year program at P.A.R.T.S in Brussels. Soon afterwards he joined the Italian dance company Compagnia Virgilio Sieni, and in 2010 became member of the Hungarian company Hodworks.
He began working as a co-creator in the five-member collective Bloom! (City, Tame Game, The End is Near), and later on pursued a similar creative collaboration in the formation Dányi-Molnár-Vadas (Skin Me). As an independent choreographer he had worked in association with Trafó House of Contemporary Arts and SÍN Cultural Centre in Budapest or Départs European network project. He produced two pieces (KITTY2012, Deacameron). As an artist in residence he worked with the students of the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy (Merriment) and created a piece for the EN-KNAP Group (68). He participated in ‘HOM’ at TanzMainz and the Studio Alta.
His own coreographic works: KITTY2012, Decameron, The ox. In Sildenafilfairy project (click here) in collaboration with Marcio Kerber Canabarro they creating preformances (Tropical escape, EYE Candy, Winter Journey).
He is co-creator of four pieces that had been granted the annual Rudolf Lábán Prize for the best contemporary dance performance of the season:: Bloom!:City(2011), Hodworks: Basse Danse (2012), Dányi-Molnár-Vadas: Skin Me (2014), Hodworks: Dawn (2014). The pieces City, KITTY2012, Skin Me, Dawn and The Conditions of Being a Mortal had all been chosen by the Aerowaves European dance network for their annual showcase of the 20 priority contemporary dance performances.
In his work he strives for reconciling radical extremes. His main interest is to explore how different ways of expression, when juxtaposed, may transform the most private phenomena of human life into a universal and liberating theatrical experience.

Special mentions

• The performance contains scenes of nudity.
• The performance will be followed-up by an artist-talk.