Prayer of the impatient gardener
El-Hassan Róza a gombostűlétről, Kantról és a megfeszített árnyékról
She has been a student rebel, has turned a dog into a curator and has given blood at the Belgrade contemporary art museum. Now she has woven a huge exclamation mark on the lake in the City Park.
Ten years ago you asked a dog to be a curator. Why was that?
It was rather about the force of chance and the power of choice. According to the legend that gave me the idea, the prince of Mantua lost his favourite dog during a hunting trip. He set off to search for him and came across a painter, thanks to a choice of the dog who was looking for shelter. The prince liked the artist’s works so much that he made him his court painter. My art teacher at primary school entered me for every contest there was. Sometimes I had to draw a young pioneer reading enthusiastically or an older one studying diligently, but I enjoyed it a great deal. Without it being said, I committed myself. Then my father, a doctor, was offered a job in Germany and the family moved immediately. As a Syrian, his foreign papers represented the privilege of freedom to travel. We encountered a strange world. It was then that I first suspected I could unintentionally evoke prejudice with my name.
You returned to Budapest in the 1980s. Didn’t the city seem rather bleak at that time?
Yes, everything actually looked grey. One grey façade after the other. No colourful adverts; in fact, no colours anywhere. But then I discovered a great number of different colours. I discovered there was a vibrating intellectual life behind the scenes and I began to draw again. We wanted some fresh air, a new mentality and new teachers. We got more than that – an entirely new course with masters such as Dóra Maurer, Péter Bacsó, László Beke and Péter György. Previously I was an impatient gardener and now I’ve become a praying gardener.