Drifting States / group exhibition
Saturday, May 9
Courtyard Gallery, Korzo 1, Subotica
16.30 - Drukker Printing Workshop
6 pm - Exhibition opening
The experience of guest workers is fundamentally defined by duality: a state of in-betweenness in cultural and social terms, accompanied by the intimate feeling of not fully belonging to either world — neither to the country of origin nor to the host country.
This experience is not limited to first-generation migrants; it is equally present in the dual identity of Hungarians from Vojvodina, in the feeling of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once, and in the lived realities of contemporary emigration.
The exhibition brings together different approaches to the notions of border, displacement, and home. The works of Márton Dés, Boglárka Milinszki, Tamás Sárkány, and Lilla Törteli emerge from personal and geographical transitions, where the tensions between otherness and belonging condense into a shared space.
Coordinated by the Drukker Community Print Studio, the fifth and final element of the exhibition will be created collectively during the opening. The resulting work, placed in a display case, also functions as an invitation: it calls on the audience to contribute their own experiences and stories, as almost every family or circle of friends includes someone who has moved abroad.
These personal narratives become part of a shared memory — not only through the artists’ interpretations, but also through the participation of the audience itself.
Marton Desh
Márton Dés graduated in 2015 from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, where he studied painting under András Halász. In 2017, he obtained a Meisterschüler degree at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design under Thomas Bechinger. In 2022, he completed a Master’s degree in Visual Pedagogy at the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK). He currently lives and works in Berlin.
His artistic practice is based on a playful, subjective mapping of the world and the self. Through collecting, archiving, and reinterpreting visual and linguistic signs, he explores the layers of past and present, as well as the tension between the everyday and the extraordinary, in an approach that is at once humble and rebellious.
Drukker Printmaker Community
Drukker Printmaker Community is an active creative group from Pécs since 2018 with a letterpress, screen printing, risograph, and bookbinding workshop.
The members of the organization are creators in the field of fine arts and pedagogy, who aim to be active civil citizens and raise awareness on social issues.
The workshop held during the exhibition opening will be led by members Ildikó Móricz and Dóra Szentpéteri, both of whom come from Vojvodina and studied in Pécs.
Boglarka Milinski
Boglárka Milinszki is a visual artist from Bačka Topola, currently working in Budapest. She graduated in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in the class of Mária Chilf, and is currently a doctoral student at the same institution.
In 2022, she received the Ludwig Foundation Scholarship, and in 2024 she was awarded the DECODE Promising Art Project Prize. Her first solo exhibition took place in 2025 at the Contemporary Gallery in Subotica under the title not thinking / collective not thinking private.
Her artistic methodology is characterized by a dual focus: she approaches her subjects both from an intimate, familial perspective and from broader frameworks of memory politics. This duality is unified by the concept of absence, which permeates all layers of her work.
Tamaš Šarkanj
Tamás Sárkány grew up in Horgoš and has been living in Hungary, in Szeged, for nearly ten years. He studied at the Department of Drawing and Art History at the University of Szeged (JGYPK), where he is currently also a staff member.
Alongside painting, he is particularly engaged with assemblage as a technique. His work frequently explores themes of childhood and coming of age, the responsibilities that come with it, as well as questions of staying, leaving, and creating a sense of home. The notion of home is a recurring element in his recent work.
Lila Terteli
Lilla Törteli was born in Senta and, fleeing the war with her family, first moved to Sweden and later settled in Szeged.
Her preferred medium is colored pencil, and her favorite place is always the present moment. She is fond of materials but not of things. Her art reflects a seemingly carefree world, yet her characters often appear in difficult situations.
Her central motif is escape — and the desire for it: escape from norms and institutional constraints, as well as from anxiety and the injustices.