Biography

 Zur deutschen Version 
Kristóf Szabó, 2004
Jeannine Bruno
great-grandfather Jakab Pencz, about 1945

Bilingualism is my basic experience: Not only did I grow up with the German and Hungarian language at the same time, but chess, maths, philosophy, as well as rapture and the feared and denied chaotic movement of the boundless depths of our feelings and passions are also present in me. They work simultaneously on the clarity of a wider openness, an immeasurable consciousness. This work of the artist on himself appears in me through a series of pictures which make up a new bilingualism, that metaphorical way of thinking which is represented in language, while they adopt the different form. First I record everything in Hungarian, then I go on with the translated text in German. From this time on I translate it again and again, until there is always a version in each language. Both originals are my work. Cologne and Budapest are my home towns.

Kristóf  Szabó 1973

The descent into the underworld ( I was fascinated by Dante's "Hell", Lautréamont's "Les Chants de Maldoror", Byrons "Manfred" and Patchens' "Sleepers Awake") is a literary topos which enables me to follow up in an experiment current issues of space and time as we still imagine them. Ramifications, proliferation, transformations, sharp and fast cuts, the appearance of non-introduced, ephemeral characters and objects characterize the web of my poetic narrative. Its creative principle is the physical self-transgression of matter. The aesthetics is inspired by eye-catching media which convey reality (posters, television, internet). Essential themes of my work are the driving forces which bring about all kinds of changes - in this context I read Buddhist sutras and commentaries and the work of Foucault, Bataille and Derrida.

Kristóf Szabó 1986

Being everything that a human being could be is what poetic thinking and feeling means to me

I eat, drink, sleep, love in the air. For nine months I do not reach the bottom; then my feet touch the ground.

Born 1968 in Hungary, Budapest.
Since 1972 - competition chess player
1978 Hungarian champion with the chess team Budapest II, category Up to the age of 14
1980 – 81 Secondary modern school in Germany, Göppingen.
1981 – 88 European Hungarian private grammar school in Germany, (Kastl in Upper Palatinate).
1982 – 88 Scholarship,
Punkrock band KGB-Junk - drums/voice
first film, A-levels
1988 – 96 University of Cologne, Theatre and Film Studies (M.A.), Minor subjects: Psychology, Educational Theory.
Breathing Poems and plays for intermedial theatre
1992 Interpreter and editor for the Hungarian language for the Bonner Biennale - Festival of international dramatists in Germany, Bonn.
1994 Editor for the Hungarian language for the Bonner Biennale - Festival of international dramatists in Germany, Bonn.
1997 Translator of the work of the Kossuth pricewinner Ervin Lázár from Hungarian into German for the Saxon Ministry of Education and the Arts
1998 – 2000 Member of the surralist group of artists Antlogonis infekt, alias Taibo Bati, collages, assemblages, participation in the group exhibition in Belgium, Liège.
1996 – 2005 Breathing Poems
Plays for intermedial theatre
Publications in various German, Dutch and Hungarian literary journals, a.o. in Hungarian Studies, Budapest, Fluisterend, Antwerpen, Anachronia, special edition Neue Ungarische Literatur, Hamburg, Versa, Cologne
Neue Stücke für intermediales Theater.
2001 Surrealism for sale - Happening in Cologne (concepts, prose work, poetry. Organisation, lectures and collages with Jeannine Bruno).
2002 Manifest of the fresh calf: »Stepping out!«, (co-operation with  Jeannine Bruno) at the internatinal cow-project, Germany, Oberhausen.
Kristóf  Szabó 1990 2003 Publication scholarship of the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and the Arts and the Fund of Hungarian Cultural Heritage - publication of the book Babó Titti Kristóf: A szegezett árnyu madár at the Balassi publishing house, Budapest (Breathing Poem).
2004 Publication scholarship of the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and the Arts and the Fund of Hungarian Cultural Heritage - publication of the book Babó Titti Kristóf: Karfüst at the fisz publishing house, Budapest (Plays for intermedial theatre).
2005 Translations of the work of Ervin Lázár and of the author  Zsuzsa Vathy  from Hungarian into German for the German-Hungarian Society, Dortmund.

First performance: Karfüst (radio play version)in the  TÜZRAKTÁR/Centre of Independent Culture in Budapest, May 2005, Production: Miklusicsák Alíz.

Independent antiquarian at the University of Cologne for more than 5 years.

At present freelance editor at the Luchterhand publishing house, Cologne.



Kristóf Szabó
  Jeannine Bruno
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