First the pandemic, then the birth of her first child: While artist Judith State works on her project "Ember," a lot changes not only in the world, but also for herself.

When she started researching "Ember" in 2020, the project itself was still intended as a reminiscence of her Hungarian childhood with her grandparents. At this point, the Bucharest-based actress, dancer and choreographer was invited to take up a home residency in Romania as part of Life Long Burning's two-year Creative Crossroads grant program. With the project, Judith planned to get to the bottom of human memory in particular - a topic she had already dedicated herself to in her previous work "Emlék".

After various lockdowns brought further work on "Ember" to a standstill, Judith became a mother for the first time in 2021. Through this experience, "Ember" began to transform: "I began to ask myself how I could dig deeper with my work. For me, making relevant artistic work inevitably means exposing myself to some degree. However, I realized through my work on "Ember" that this demand was also self-exploitative. I've always felt like I have to perform whenever eyes are on me. And having to constantly perform is very exhausting in the long run."

In the spring of 2022, Judith continued her work on "Ember" as part of a solo residency at Veem House Amsterdam, after which she brought in fellow performers for her two-week residency at Uferstudios. Performer István Téglás and musician Radu Dumitriu know only too well the strong urge to constantly do something and to perform. The latter began his career by studying at the Conversatorium, for which he sometimes practiced up to 8 hours a day in addition to his lessons there.

Being without Doing - the natural choreography of the human body

During the residency, the team practiced "Being without Doing" - what the choreographer calls the natural movements of the body that are there without having been staged and yet form a choreographic pattern all their own. "Together, during our residency, we resisted the urge to have to do something. The framework of the residency made this easier for us, of course - working completely without production pressure did us all, and ultimately "Ember," a lot of good. During my time at Uferstudios, I realized how important it has become for me to work with people who are close to me and with whom I feel comfortable. Therefore I very often had my child with me in the studio and it was exciting to notice how the constant presence of my child had a strong influence on the work. That's why, in a way, "Ember" is also a work about motherhood or fatherhood. By now I can not not talk about motherhood when I talk about myself. It's part of my life and therefore of my art."

Judith State was invited in 2020 by the European network project Life Long Burning (LLB) as part of the 2-year Creative Crossroads program to work on her project "Ember." As part of the structural support provided by the LLB network, she worked at Uferstudios for two weeks in August 2022 for an artist residency. During this time, we met her for a chat in the courtyard on a warm August afternoon. The work "Ember" had it's premiere on November 4th 2022 at WASP Bucharest.