Kincső Bede: Three Colours I Know in This World
Anyone with East European background would instantly sense something familiar in what’s going on in the series. Communist-style interiors, objects, clothing… everything is so homogeneous and recognisable except for the mood of rebellion and absurdity with which this outdated environment is treated. There is a clash. The clash with outdated ideologies that still persevere to live within people in the society, including the older generation of one’s families. As Kincső says, her images are moved by the secrets and repression that was preserved for decades. And these wild performing acts is a way to refine oneself.
About the project
The title Three Colors I Know in This World quotes the first line of the anthem of the Romanian Socialist Republic, translated by the lyrical self, the voice of a child. The three colors in the story are blue, yellow and red, the three colors of the Romanian flag. The images in this series evoke feelings, memories of the physical body, unprocessed dialogues, intra-family (mostly generational) conflicts with the paranoid filters of grey everyday life. My images are moved by the secrets and repression that was preserved for decades. I began to consciously use these feelings when taking pictures. The most important step was to give myself over to the image. I had to let the image refine me, but not just me, also all subsequent images. With this series I find myself on sensitive ground, where I not only work with memory politics, history, and my parents’ past, but also try to take on our common present. Namely, the deep traces a system such as the Ceaușescu dictatorship leaves behind, and how it is still able to separate and juxapose people who otherwise love each other. The main conflict in the series is essentially expressed in the gap between the two generations: the generation of my parents who came into the world during Ceaușescu’s dictatorship, and were later socialized in it - as opposed to my generation who were born after the regime changed.
About the photographer
Kincső Bede (1995) is a Romanian visual artist with Hungarian roots, who grew up in a small city in Transylvania, Romania. She is fascinated by the communist past of her homeland, the power of the leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, the control exercised by the security agency Securitate, and how this history is passed down across the generations. Currently, Kincsõ lives and works in Budapest, Hungary and she studies at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. She is part of the Studio of Young Photographers. In 2020 she won the photography scholarship of the Association of Hungarian Photographers. In the same year she was among the winners of Carte Blanche Students, a scholarship founded by Paris Photo, the world's greatest photo art fair. The works of the four winners were exhibited at the parisian Gare du Nord. Her diploma series, intitled "Three Colours I Know in This World.." was chosen for the 10 New Talent 2020 programme by the curators of BredaPhoto Festival and was exhibited in The Netherlands. Her work is often applauded by the foreign press. Also, her photos are part of the Blurring the Lines 2020 issue. From 2020 she is represented TOBE Gallery.
