Commissions
“I like being a farmer and I would like to stay one”
“I like being a farmer and I would like to stay one” is an on-going, long-term artistic project initiated by Antje Schiffers in 2000 (in collaboration with Thomas Sprenger). It was delivered in Hungary in collaboration with Katalin Erdődi (curator, Budapest/Vienna) as part of the CAPP Commissions with Ludwig Museum.
Schiffers offered a barter trade to farmers: a painting that she makes of their farmstead, in exchange for a film that the farmers shoot about how they live and work. Schiffers and Erdődi collaborated with three farmers in Hungary: János Sallai, a watermelon producer from Nagykamarás; Orsolya Kovács, a goose farmer based in Körösszegapáti and the winemaker Sárosdi family in Szekszárd.
This barter framed the exchange between the artist and the farmers during the one week that they spent with each other. Together they explored the most beautiful subjects or vantage points of the farms for the paintings, and in turn, the farmers shared their perspectives and experiences in the films that they make.
The collaboration focused especially on rural change, the socio-political, economic, and cultural transformation that the Hungarian countryside has undergone in the past 25-30 years. Three farmers’ films captured kaleidoscopic and fragmented rural realities at three different locations. At the same time, they aimed to provoke a broader discussion about the situation of rural communities in contemporary Hungary, involving both rural and as urban publics.
After the editing process, the films will premiere not only in the villages where the farmers live, but also in Budapest, as part of an exhibition documenting the project and a public program at Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest from 30 January 2018.
“I like being a farmer and I would like to stay one” was a collaboration between Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art Budapest, National Cultural Fund of Hungary and Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) as part of the Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP).
COMMUNITY_ Rural communities
ART FORM_ Film
