Lesbian spaces: street performances in Debrecen's public spaces

Adrienn Hód & Márta Ladjánszki × Labrisz: Lesbian Spaces, June 7-8-9, 2025, Debrecen

 

The continuation of last year's performance series in Budapest, now with the participation of Adrienn Hód alongside Márta Ladjánszki.

 

In 2024, cinematographer Gábor Szabó, sound engineer Rudolf Várhegyi, and filmmaker Réka Szűcs shot performances inspired by Márta Ladjánszki's dance piece "Széki Luca" for the Labrisz Censorship Museum project and the Labrisz 25 exhibition, Lesbian Spaces x Márta Ladjánszki: Alone.

 

In this project, the choreographer-performer and the film crew visited former gay and lesbian venues and meeting places in Budapest. These are places that regularly appear in the Labrisz Archive materials—Egyetem presszó, Capella, Ipoly cinema, Café Eklektika—and which are now "cold places," preserving only architectural traces of the memory of institutions linked to the community's herstory. In the performances captured on film, the moving body brings the past to life. It does not remember it, it does not "dance it away," but rather brings it to life with the vitality of the body. It literally embodies what was once present in these places.

In June 2025, we will continue this in Debrecen with two prominent Hungarian contemporary female dance artists, in "cold places" such as the former PANZIÓ, various locations of Club Zeusz, the Csokonai Theater's actors' club, and the Kaktusz Beer Hall...

The performances are not advertised, and we basically count on passers-by as a spontaneous audience. The recordings will again be part of the Labrisz 25 historical-art exhibition, which will be on display at the Malter Bar in Debrecen during the summer, accompanied by various events. More details coming soon.