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Dora Maurer: I start always from my last finished work to create the next – that is how I see the possibilities of what can happen in the next one. I begin, as everybody, with drawing and painting, and then I come to the printed graphic. I search not only for themes, but also for changing the technique. I come to a kind of action graphic where the plates, the graphic plates, the copper plates, are not only carrying pictures, but are also active parts of movement. These plates are falling down from very high and they are disturbed coming to the earth and so it was possible to make one print as a documentation from the crumpled thing. This is just an example – there are endless possibilities, which naturally I didn't try to bring to an end.
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Yes, this is a piece from five squares coming out, six rectangles and it is rhythmic, the two things are confronted with each other. It was a way of counting, of very simple mathematics. I wanted to find out the primitive mathematic of things. This started in 1972 and went on with time. Everybody knows what time is, but to have the feeling of what time it is, can be expressed with these visual elements.Do you make your art in the studio? Or is it designed in the studio and made somewhere else?
No, they were made in the studio. I make everything with my hands.Really? Some of the pieces are so big.
In the last year I've gotten more room because we bought a second apartment, and it's empty. But before that I made this large, high piece in my bedroom in smaller parts.Have you always been based in Hungary?
I was for thirty years, often going into Vienna. I have dual citizenship, which was necessary to have in the late 70s and early 80s because hopping abroad wasn't possible.Vienna has always had a very strong art scene.
In Vienna we were very active. When I was there in the 60s it was…Vienna was sometimes sympathetic to me and sometimes it wasn't. It was political, often around my gender.Reading about you, it strikes me that there isn't a break between your life and your art. It's continuous.
Thank you. I think that is so.
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Yes, naturally. They have to do with performance but also the desire to make something alive. Movement is necessary to life, both in the sense that people move – from one country to another – and within themselves. Everything is movement. For me, it's a continuous hope that things are changing – it's not just physical.Have you ever taught?
A long time ago, yes. I was a private tutor for the young and then I worked in a state school with another Hungarian artist. Somebody invited us to work there and we did what we wanted to do. Then I lead a course for fourteen to eighteen year olds in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest – from drawing shadows to making small films with photographs. Then I was invited to be a teacher, leading a class in the Academy of Fine Arts. It wasn't painting; it was very inter-disciplined. There were poets and musicians and everybody.
There wasn't political freedom but it changed a lot since the 1960s. There were no galleries. Later there were some but they were heavily influenced by the state. For example, if you wanted to exhibit, you had to apply to the Ministry or Artist's Association and they would often reply, "You are too young" or "Okay, but only this part" or even "These two are ugly. You cannot show it."
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Yes, I mean, I must say there were also museums which were very advanced. For example in Pécs and Székesfehérvár – far from Budapest, from the centrally controlled areas – artists were working and could manage. The first Hungarian avant-garde exhibition took place in the 70s in Pécs. It was called Movement. Then in the Bureau for Architecture in Budapest there was a pop art exhibition in the late 60s. My husband and I went abroad often and organised exhibitions in Germany and Austria. Often bringing colleagues' artworks without permission!In your luggage?
No, we had a minibus and got past customs!It's been a long drive for Dora Maurer, but personally I'm glad she and others like her made it across borders.Read more artist interviews here.For more information, please visit tate.org.uk.