Artist statement
I use the camera to write poems. Literature, dreams, mythology, being on the road and everyday life are my guides inward and outward.
Confronting reality is uncomfortable, because I like to take control, have many fears and hate change. My attitude towards so called reality is philosophical and magical, being deeply interested in poetry, fiction and stories: narrative ones, fragmented ones, coherent or incoherent, classic or ancient ones, verbal and visual ones. So I tell, invent and retell stories.
I use personal questions as an autobiographical starting point to connect with culture and other people in order to construct narratives about unanswerable questions.
I am fascinated by secrets: the ones we feel uncomfortable to tell to anyone or the ones about inexplicable mysteries and making up visual stories on intimacy, the very fragile passageway between private and public and transitional states of life.
I use the camera when I don’t have words and I use words when I don’t find images.
About
Anikó Antalfi is a Hungarian photographer based in Mexico City. She holds a master’s degree in Photography from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. Prior to her focus on photography, Anikó studied Theology and Literature for three years at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, and later graduated in Philosophy and Communication from the same institution.
Anikó’s connection with Mexico began with a year-long residency in the country through the Mexican Government's artist residency program, after which she relocated to Mexico City. She has received several scholarships to support the creation of new projects. Her work has been exhibited in Hungary, Romania, and Mexico being the finalist of the top ten portfolios of IMAGO Portfolios in Lisbon and at the Encontros da Imagem Foto Festival in Braga. Additionally, Anikó has worked as a photographer and artistic collaborator for Stanford University’s Poverty, Violence and Governance Lab’s research project in Mexico.
In her artistic practice, she is focusing on themes such as intimacy, representations of the self, boundaries of private and public and transitional states of life. Her work combines constructed images, performative elements and documentary techniques, where pictures are depiction of imagination and the camera is a tool of poetry.
Contact
anikoantalfi@gmail.com
Mexico: +52 55 7275 6468
Hungary: +36 30 535 5555