The Collection (1900–2022) | Katalin Ladik

Katalin Ladik (Novi Sad, 1942) is one of the most significant artists of Central-and Eastern-European art. Her visual approach towards language and poetry was deeply influenced by the multilingualism of her hometown in former Yugoslavia, Novi Sad. Her career started as a poet. In the latter part of the 1960s, she established contact with the circle of the only Hungarian-language avant-garde periodical, New Symposion in Vojvodina, by publishing her poetry. During the 1960s she became a member of the conceptual art group, Bosch+Bosch and played an important role in the literary scene and avant-garde art in Vojvodina. She participated in the Venice Biennial in 1978 with her poems and collages. Between 1977 and 1992 she was an actress of the Vojvodina Theatre. In the 1980s she was part of the Boris Kovač band as a singer. She received the Lajos Kassák Prize in 1991 and the Attila József Prize in 2001. In 2016 Yoko Ono awarded her the LennonOno Grant for Peace. In 2012 she won the Laurel Wreath of Hungary Award and in 2017 she was invited to participate in the documenta in Kassel. From the second half of the 1970s she exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions. Her recent exhibition, the solo show titled O00000000-pus was on display at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and the Ludwig Forum in Aachen. She lives and works in Budapest and the island of Hvar in Croatia.
Ladik works across various forms of media, such as concrete and visual poetry, performance, sound art and sculpture. Performativity was an important feature of her poems from the beginning, and from the late 1960s onward sound poetry and performance became her main genre. Beyond her happenings, rituals, photographical performances she was also successful as a film and theater actress. Her visual poems – collages that include sewing patterns, found objects such as circuit boards of radios and kitchen appliances – also function as musical scores. The intellectual and conceptual roots of her work can be found in feminist avant-garde. A central element of her performances is the reflection on female roles. For the artist working with various media, even the body is poetry. She questions gender roles and female archetypes while using her body and voice as a tool and medium.
Through photographic and video works, this exhibition showcases Ladik’s body art and emblematic, early surreal performances.