Oldal 167 [167]
OCR
TRANSFORMATION RITUALS IN THE PERFORMANCES OF JUDIT KELE ——~<~o»—___ KARINA KOPPANY Judit Kele is a Hungarian artist who decided to move to France in the 1980s. Unable to do so without a visa, she posted an advertisement in a French newspaper, Libération, in which she offered her hand to any French man, in return for a visa. Troubles arose not only because she was already married in her home country, but also because of the suspicion her attempt raised in immigration offices. For Kele it was not just a marriage, rather a performance: she had men participating in an auction, where she was bidden for. As Arnold van Gennep’s “The Rites of Passage” suggests, this sort of auction and marriage can be considered as a transitional rite. In my paper, I am going to talk about her marriage and how living as a piece of art resulted in identity disorders. This performance was the second sequence of the series “Iam a Work of Art”, which began in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest in 1979. “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh." Mt 19:6. It is 1980 when Judit Kele, a Hungarian artist, realises that she cannot remain in Hungary. Frustrated with the status of women in Post-Cold War EasternEurope, she wants to move abroad and will do all it takes to reach her goal. She decides to seek a better life in France. Moving to France,” however, proved even harder than she had expected, as in the 1980s it was not as straightforward a move to make as it is nowadays, to settle in another European country as a foreigner. She also needed something else: a French husband! In this chapter, I will therefore elaborate on the circumstances of her unconventional wedding. Judit Kele started her performance series 1 am a Work of Art in 1979. For the first sequence she sat in the space of a loaned out El Greco painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest as an installation. She also traveled abroad with several artworks and performances. In Paris, at Studio Théatre d’en Face, 1 The Holy Bible, Mt 19,6. https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/matt/19?lang=eng Beata Hock: Moving across Europe: Three Case Studies on Sex-Appeal, in Katarzyna Kosmala (ed.): Sexing the Border: Gender, Art and New Media in Central and Eastern Europe, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, 33.
