Andrea
Gáldi Vinkó

Budapest
1982

As an emerging Hungarian photographer, Andi Gáldi Vinkó became recognized in the international art field right after her graduation at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in 2011. In the past few years, her work has been exhibited in London, Paris, and New York. The series Homesickland depicts Andi Gáldi Vinkó’s complicated relationship with her homeland, Hungary. Like many other Eastern Europe newcomers of her generation, Gáldi Vinkó was constantly longing for someplace else, hoping for more opportunities and happiness that must lie somewhere out there. As an effect of her various experiences abroad, her feelings towards Hungary have changed. She has begun to observe her home as a tourist, from a nostalgic and affectionate point of view. She has started to feel as if time has stopped between a dream that cannot be real and the remembrances of a past that she has never experienced. In this new reality she became more forgiving, and instead of maintaining high expectations of her home she has found significance in the mundane details of everyday life. A dreamy and soft atmosphere defines her photographs that document absurd situations and unusual but familiar characters. Reminiscences from childhood merge with typical scenes from a post-socialist country. Corroded walls of a blockhouse, concrete buildings, pigs basking in the heating sun or a euphoric summer moment evoke the feelings of homesickness and comfort at the same time.