ARTIST STATEMENT

The found objects I use for my collages and installations are objects, which are not really needed or named as trash. I do find and collect these "useless" leftovers like textiles, old books, tickets, all kind of papers, wire, furnitures and natural materials like wood, leaves etc. Each of these useless items tell a story. I try to connect the stories with each other, create a composition and give them a new sense of living and a right of existance.

I usually work in series. The Series "Under the microscope" deales with the body, body sells, tissues and structures. The collages show fictional images of microscopic takes. I worked with found papers, acrylics and tempera, which I glued and painted over another to create various layers.

My new series "Stadt, Land, Fluss..." is made of several collages out of papers and old maps. With its fictitious landscapes it questions territorial rights of countries, borders, landscapes, city areas etc. The translated title in English means "City, country, river..." and refers to the game, in which the players need to find as fast as they can a city, river, country etc. with one letter, which has been chosen before by chance and in silence by one of the players. The game is based on coincidence, the counting of one player, trust and the knowledge about geography which can be transfered to territorial history and questions.

The series „Emotions Exploding“ is about feelings, ups and downs in life. Every person has emotions. Sometimes emotions lead us light-footed through life and the world is „colorful“, for instance when we are in love. But if something goes not as we did expected it, we can get the impression of everything being „grey and cheerless“. Our emotions consist of feelings like sadness, happiness, anger, fear etc., of body processes and reactions plus modes of behavior. The term „emotion“ is latin („ex“ and „movere“) and means movement to the outside. In this sense emotions are expressiv and make their way out through facial expression, gesture and voice. Emotional experiences can be very complex plus intense. At the same time they can be diffuse and difficult to explain. Each of us experiences emotions in an individual way so they make us unique, are the base of our personality and our identity as well as lead us in thinking and acting.

BIOGRAPHY

Teresa Szepes was born in 1981 in Berlin/Germany. After taking a European Voluntary Service in Galway/Ireland (work with homeless), she studied Art and Education in Leipzig/Germany. Next to her studies in Leipzig she has been a student in the Hungarian Art Academy in Budapest where she joined the painting and intermedia class. After graduating with the Bachelor and Master of Arts at the University of Leipzig in 2010, Teresa Szepes got an Artist scholarship from the „Balassi Institute Budapest“. During that time she also worked as a curator for different projects like „Here & Now“ (an interactive and intercultural exhibition project) and „Szobart“ (a German Hungarian exhibition project). In 2012 she traveled to Porto/Portugal with the Leonardo da Vinci scholarship. Next to working as an artist she works for different educational institutions as a teacher. In 2015 she founded the international exhibition project „DIN A [<]“ in Leipzig.