Kinga Szemessy, M.A. BA

Kinga Szemessy is a Hungarian performance artist living in Linz and studying in the doctoral programme ‘Science and Art’ at the Mozarteum and the Paris-Lodron University Salzburg. She holds a BA in contemporary dance, a BA in theatre history and film studies and an international MA in dance knowledge, practice and heritage (Choreomundus). She is also trained in various massage techniques (Aquasoma/Watsu, Swedish and Thai massage) and learns a lot from climbing and meditation.

Through the fusion of these many experiences, she has designed events where you are trained to recognise the world through your own body sensations and make decisions accordingly. She calls this mission, which is often neglected in general education, somatic activism. Since 2019, her interdisciplinary projects have mostly been realised in cooperation with the SVUNG Research Group or the Ziggurat Project (both IN SITU artists) and often presented at the PLACCC International Festival for Site-Specific Art and Art in Public Space. In parallel, with SVUNG, they created pre-performance ‘warm-up’ art education events at the Trafó House of Contemporary Art and the National Dance Theatre.

As a guest lecturer she has led courses at Fontys University (Tilburg) – MA in Performing Public Space, OLIve / Central European University, Mozarteum University – MA in Applied Theatre – Artistic Theatre Practice & Society, University of Theatre and Film Arts (Budapest) – BA in Applied Theatre, BA & MA Erasmus, and at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy. In the extracurricular field she has been fortunate to work with the communities (teenagers, seniors and mixed abilities) of Body Journal, SILVER BOOM (Anna Anderegg), Habitat (Kata Juhász), ConCuerpos (Bogotá), ArtMan (Budapest), DanceAbility (Vienna), Georgian National Wheelchair Dance Sport Federation (Tbilisi), Candoco (London).

Regularly recurring themes:
Participatory dramaturgies / scores
Performativity and health and social care
Pedagogy of discomfort, world-centred education
Place-making, spaces of urgency, contact zones
The body as archive
Participation and art education in the socialist era (Hungary)

Weblinks:
kingaszemessy.com
svungresearch.hu/ (www.in-situ.info/the-network/artists/2020-2024/the-svung-research-group)
zigguratproject.com/
placcc.hu/
Body Journal: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnjY8tmP2Yk&t
Habitat: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTJT1guUqhE&ab