Emma Varga

Image from “Vox victimæ” project by Emma Varga

Biography

Website: https://emmavarga.myportfolio.com/

I am a 21-year-old artist based in Budapest, Hungary. I am currently studying fine art photography at the Budapest Metropolitan University (METU), where I will graduate at the end of June. From September I will continue my studies at the University of the Arts London (UAL) on the Art and Science MA course. Currently, I am exploring the boundaries between art and science, interdisciplinary approaches, which have appeared in almost all of my recent work. I am mainly interested in microscopes, I am exploring them as alternative image-making tools.

The project

How does a living being become a victim? When did we become so detached from life that we built systems around it to decide who is worthy of living? What happens to those who are not worthy? What happens when we are not worthy? Who is it that selects, categorises, decides — and who empowered them?

Sacrifice was originally a sacred act; today we make sacrifices, we become victims on the altar of power, political ideologies and scientific progress instead of gods. Which body becomes a tool, a sacrifice, and which remains protected? What happens when we no longer defend life, but the system? Who is to say what is life and what is not?

“Man is the cruellest animal.” — writes Nietzsche. But is it really the animal that is cruel, or is it man who builds systems around cruelty?

These are the ideas I explore in my work — more specifically, the question of how a living being becomes a victim. The act of sacrifice dates back to the dawn of history, but it is still present today. Only now, we sacrifice not in sacred spaces, but on the altar of political systems, ideologies, and power.

Image from “Vox victimæ” project by Emma Varga

Image from “Vox victimæ” project by Emma Varga

This work is a photo book I bound myself, titled “Vox victimæ”, which translates as Voice of the Victims. My work is divided into three parts. The first and third are more narrative and interconnected. I wrote the texts for these sections: the first recounts a fictional ritual of sacrifice; the third, a (semi-)fictional animal experiment.

Between them lies an abstract section, composed of phase-contrast microscopy images showing apoptosis (programmed cell death) in the HeLa cell line, and sections of animal organs and tissues. These images demonstrate that under the microscope, humans and animals are indistinguishable — formed from the same substance. In my work, victimhood manifests not only at the level of the body, but also in organs and cells.