“I am originally from Hungary but based in New York and mostly working between Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels.

As a freelancer dancer, fine artist, but sort of an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, performer, stage designer, light designer, media designer, person in charge of the scenography and the costumes, working with fine arts and cinema, sometimes painting about it - I’m immensely interested in creation.

I have a strong background in ballet, hungarian folk dance, modern dance, urban, butoh, urban butoh, floorwork, shiatsu, capoeira, modern running, folk yoga, somatic disco, radical stretching, …”

What sounds like the incredible CV of a jack-of-all-trades is one of the many biographies of fake artists that Julcsi Vavra from Hungary creates in her artistic work. With these fictitious characters, who seem to be able to do everything, have been trained in everything and are active and at home all over the world, the Hungarian artist satirizes the increasing self-marketing strategies of artists, which have become necessary in order to make a living from their art. Julcsi describes the problems that arise from this: "How you have to sell yourself, sell your idea and how you have to write applications before you've even done anything is absurd. I know that's how it works, but it's also absolutely bizarre when you look at it from the outside."

Vavra, who is spending a two-week residency at Uferstudios as part of Life Long Burning, wants to use her work to criticize the commercialized art system. However, she also repeatedly asks herself: Who gets funding? And why? With applications for fictitious projects that seem so elaborate that they stand in stark contrast to the scarce funding sums, which in times of reduced cultural budgets entail more and more restrictions, she humorously highlights the problem that the scene is confronted with.

The fact that the issue of funding is currently a major problem for practising artists not only in Germany, but especially in Hungary, is not least due to Viktor Orbán's nationalist government, which has been increasingly awarding cultural funding to projects and artists that propagate traditional binary role models and emphasize masculine folklore and sports for several years. There is hardly any money left for the independent scenes, but there is for the construction of numerous football stadiums.

During her time at Uferstudios, Julcsi therefore wants to research the mechanisms and funding strategies of Berlin freelance artists in addition to developing other fake artists in the studio. She wants to get to know more underground, independent, communal art spaces. The acteurs she encounters during this time could also end up as inspirations for masks that she creates to portray archetypes that she sees in the field of the perfoming arts. One of the inspirations of those masks could be the Berlin-based choreographer James Batchelor, who is Julcsi's exchange partner as part of Life Long Burning and who is supporting her in her research on site before he himself visits the Workshop Foundation Budapest in the fall. "It's good that James is here, it made the start here a little easier, as he was able to give me good tips and I wasn't starting from scratch."

By attending numerous performances and researching underground locations in Berlin, she also wants to get to know the scene itself and its themes. "Ultimately, this residency is not only about personal growth, but also about understanding broader contexts. By immersing myself in the Berlin scene, I hope I can find some examples or learn some ways here on how to trick and trap the system or create more independent and communal spaces. Having some distance from Hungary creates some fresh air and helps me to overview the situation back there and hopefully clears out some directions I wanna take next."

Julcsi Vavra had been resident artist at Uferstudios from June 10 to 21, 2024 as part of the Life Long Burning module “Artistic Exchange Residencies”. The "Artistic Exchange Residencies" aim to promote artistic creation by offering residency artists opportunities with European network partners with the aim of promoting European and international exchange, networking and capacity building. This year, the module takes place as a close exchange between two venues and artists. Julcsi Vavra was sent to Berlin by the Workshop Foundation Budapest. Life Long Burning is co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.