Sorela Archív (Sorela Archive)
In Hungarian folk mythology the world is divided into three spheres: the Upperworld, the home of the gods, the Middleworld, where we live out our loves, sorrows and tragedies, and the Underworld, left for wandering spirits and multi-headed dragons, and their loves, sorrows, and tragedies. At the centre of it all stands the World Tree, connecting the three spheres. It is through this tree that I first interpreted the world.
The stories we tell ourselves matter. Collective memory is constructed, shaped, and recalled by us. The myths I grew up on gave me footing to navigate the world: if I could outwit deceitful foxes and climb the World Tree, I could figure out taxes and grief. The myths Slovaks and Hungarians constructed and retold after the fall of communism gave them a sense of national identity and belonging. Folklore revivalism helped claim continuity in a transitional time. Beside the World Tree, I'm drawn to the folklore of concrete housing blocks, discontinued soaps, Cuban oranges, and Papirosa cigarettes. Sorela Archive rests on the pillars of my country’s communist past. It centers around the nostalgia, the leftovers, the itch in your palm.
I'm an archivist of remembrance and nostalgia. I use hand-sewn smocking to alter archival images. As the fabric folds and creases, the image becomes an object in space. Memory, here, isn't a fixed image but something handled, distorted, and re-encountered. My work asks: how can material processes hold and transform collective memory? What does it mean to make memories tactile?
