PARALLEL ART FOUNDATION
Anna
Járai
Habitus
(Hungaricum Metamorphoses
IV.)
Cairo Contemporary, Budapest
2026 09 04–10 14
In folk belief, the red boot appears as a means of taming a forest creature known as the ‘wild maiden’, which can be interpreted as a symbol of coercion into the patriarchal order. The work subverts and reclaims this symbol: the boot becomes the embodiment of Virginia Woolf’s ‘a room of one’s own’, taking on monumental proportions and providing a space for the experience of a wild, autonomous inner world. In this way, the process of taming is turned inwards; rather than subduing our inner wildness, it reinforces self-discovery, liberation and reclaiming.
Anna Járai, a Budapest-based filmmaker and visual artist, explores the themes of embodiment and memory from a feminist critical perspective, creating research- and performance-based, cross-genre works including videos, photographs and installations. She draws inspiration from folklore, family history and local history, which she frequently references in her ritual reinterpretations. The installation entitled Habitus is a spatial representation of the latest piece in the Hungarikum Metamorphoses photographic series.
In 2022, she graduated from the Film programme at Falmouth University in England, and in 2026, she graduated with an MA in Fine Art from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Her work has been shown at international film festivals and institutions such as the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol, the Millennium Film Workshop in New York, the Mayfair Art Weekend in London, and most recently at The Ladder in Redruth. In Budapest, her works were on display at the group exhibition The Land Interviewed at the Tér-Kép Gallery, as well as at the Turbina Cultural Centre’s exhibition Fluid Identities, Post-Hungarian Realities. In the spring of 2026, she was a fellow on a residency programme organised by Studio Rizoma in Palermo and European Alternatives, where she explored the themes of artistic activism and translocal solidarity. In early July, at the 5th Urban Camp organised by Tranzit.hu, she led a participatory art workshop based on the theories of Silvia Federici, in which participants created experimental animations whilst exploring the social significance of gossip.
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On view 0-24h
Cairo Contemporary, 1071 Budapest, Lövölde tér 7.
Supported by Erzsébetváros Municipality, Hungarian Academy of Arts
Cooperation partner: Bischitz Johanna Integrated Human Service Centre
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