PERFORMING PARENTHOOD 2017 OFFICIAL SELECTION:
Csilla Nagy and Gábor Kasza (Hungary, Budapest)
Birth & ReBirth by Cipolla Collectiva (2013)
Video of a one-off ritual performance
ARTIST STATEMENT:
“In April 2013 I re-collaborated with photographer Gábor Kasza to create an image of my pregnancy. We shared thoughts of childbirth for many days and took the image which became the base of a further performance. My utopian idea was to give birth in the wild. I was longing to connect with nature in order to awaken primal instincts and call upon universal support and strength. I could not imagine myself delivering in a hospital, the unfriendly, cold, impersonal institute. The image reflects on the fears, wishes and intuitions of a pregnant woman.
The Hungarian government continues to have an insensitive, money oriented approach to pre- and postnatal care. Alternative options for birth giving are not supported at all. Income from the medical industry seems to be more important than freedom of choice and human dignity.
A couple of weeks after the shooting I met a professional midwife, called Ágnes Geréb, whose case drew international public attention to the situation of home delivery in Hungary. After spending some days with her I felt I was the most powerful, beautiful and happy woman in the world, strong enough to give birth at home. My homebirth was a cathartic night between life and death, a travel back to my own birth and the most elemental experience in my life, where the past, the present and the future were there at every blessed minute.”
Csilla Nagy is a dancer, choreographer and teacher. She has performed her own and others’ work across Europe, the USA and Asia.