Franciska Legát

“What was the country in which my parents grew up like? Cruel compared to the West, humane compared to its neighbours, surreal from today's perspective and still somehow charming when seen in old photographs,” says Hungarian Franciska Legát about her photographic documentary Hellish Eden, in which the boundaries between reality, fiction, past, present, and future have been removed.

Franciska Legát investigates how her personal identity and development are influenced by the subjective stories of the past. The title Hellish Eden refers to the duality and absurdity of the Hungarian communist regime in the 1970s and 1980s. Based on the stories of her parents, she records fictional situations that could have been possible in the past, but never actually occurred. Talking about the past is often taboo for older generations and many people have still not been able to cope with their traumas.

In her series Legát works closely with her family. Based on conversations with them, she stages scenes that refer to the past. In this way, she breaks through the silence and emphasizes the importance of talking about the past in order to understand the present and thus create a better future.