Tunde Toth [ADMA, MA, MA]
Tunde Toth is an artist and researcher working in Ireland and in Vienna, Austria.
Her artistic practice is a care-full collection of long term, participatory, social(ly engaged) art projects with participants from diverse backgrounds in various contexts. She works collectively and collaboratively with publics of place or interest, schools, arts institutions, young people, inter-generational groups and people living with disabilities, access support needs and troubled experiences of social exclusion and hidden forms of discrimination.
Tunde’s practice is a collective investigation of language- and communication barriers, access issues and cultural rights – using dialogical methods, commoning and modes of co-creation. Sharing and co-production of knowledge is based on mutual respect, trust and solidarity – conditions that are cultivated slowly through durational projects. Access is considered beyond the obvious physical or logistical aspects: access is a relational issue, and is mapped, questioned, collectively investigated in a current project: S.A.F.E – Suitable Access For Everyone – Everything is a Journey (2022-2023). SAFE Project was selected for Culture Action Europe’s Conference on Cultural Rights in Barcelona (Culturopolis) in November 2022. https://tundetoth.com/s-a-f-e-project-suitable-access-for-everyone/
Investigating forms of inclusivity and the commoning of social(ly engaged) arts practices and collective curatorial processes are in the focus of Tunde’s artistic work and her practice based research since 2019. Her artistic research publication is a conversational exploration of the possibilities of dialogues with people living with intellectual disabilities and language barriers: “Circling Conversations – Distanced Dialogues”, 2021, The Yellow Press Periodical of Artistic Research (TYPP), St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp, Karel de Grote University College, Belgium.
Tunde initiated whY Commons in 2020 in Ireland: a small collective of artists, activists and researchers sharing knowledge, experiences and experiments in eco-social arts practice, climate activism and modes of collective action. https://tundetoth.com/research/artistic-research-y-commons/
She also holds and MA of Literature – with Linguistics (1998 at Pecs University, Hungary).
Tunde graduated with an Advanced Masters degree (ADMA) in Research in Art and Design at St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp, Karel de Grote University College, Belgium.
Each project is an exploration of radical co-creation with participants: experimentations with co-curation, co-authorship, co-ownership. Ethical issues related to documentation, participatory consent, archives and the “after-life” of these archives were central to Tunde’s research in her MA studies in Limerick (LIT LSAD, MA SPACE: Master of Art and Design in Social Arts Practice and Creative Environment 2018).
An example of a durational project exploring issues of access and social exclusion and communication barriers with adults with intellectual disabilities: www.deenviewproject.com
Tunde has worked extensively in areas of arts in education in Ireland both in formal and informal settings. She has developed and delivered exhibition/gallery based responsive engagement programmes at the Municipial Gallery of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Arts Office (at Lexicon) and at Butler Gallery (Kilkenny City) among other organizations. She has been working as a Creative Associate appointed by the Arts Council of Ireland on the Creative Schools Programme (Creative Ireland) since it’s initiation in 2018.
On (previous) studio based practice:
Tunde started her creative practice as a papermaker, learning and experimenting with traditional and contemporary techniques of hand papermaking. She was invited to present her work and share her making methods at the 20th IAPMA (International Association of Paper Makers and Artists) Congress in Tasmania, Australia in 2009.
The studio based art (making) practice gradually shifted towards a socially engaged, conversational and collaborative practice that is more inclusive and involves working with participants from non-art backgrounds. The studio as a space went through a transformation and became a not-always-a-physical space for experiments, thinking, reflection, writing and research. Art making, including hand paper making, intaglio print making, batik and textile arts are still important methods, but considered as actions, tools of communication, sharing research, documents and recordings, visual archives. Hand Paper Making serves as a collective action, a method for being together.
TAGS: #Tunde Toth, #Socially Engaged Arts Practice, #Dialogical arts practice, #participatory research, #artistic research, #relational practice, #Arts in education, #Participatory art, #social exclusion, #social inclusion, #creative commons, #culture commons, #commoning, #climate crisis, #environmental emergency, #cultural rights, #access, #right to access, #commoning curatorial work
Tunde Toth 