Art Encounters 2017 Exhibitions:
The Second Nature

Dora Budor (b. 1984) studied Visual Arts (New Genres) at the Columbia University School of The Arts, New York and received her MFA in Design (School of Design – Visual Communications Department) from the University of Architecture, Zagreb (2003-2008) where she also followed Architecture Studies (2003-2005). Her current artistic practice involves repurposing and “reanimating” outsourced screen-used cinema props, in order to create hybrid sculptures or architectural interventions which propose new narratives.

Selected exhibitions: Le Rêve des formes, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017); Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905 – 2016, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); Ephemerol, Ramiken Crucible, New York (2016, solo); Streams of Warm Impermanence, David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2016), Spring, Swiss Institute, New York (2015, solo), 2015 The Architect’s Plan, His Contagion and Sensitive Corridors, New Galerie, Paris (2015, solo); Inhuman, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel (2015); DIDING – An Interior That Remains an Exterior?, Künstlerhaus / Halle für Kunst & Medien (KM–), Graz (2015).  She participated in the Vienna Biennale at MAK museum (2017) as well as in the 9th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (2017).

Dora Budor creates sculptures which explore cultural phenomena found in mainstream American cinema and, in turn, seek to expose its technical and otherwise overlooked elements. Budor most regularly engages with movie props in order to reanimate them, giving them a second life by way of re-contextualization. Here, she gives new meaning to the amphibian rain scene of the Hollywood film Magnolia (1999) by creating interactive ceiling structures that are activated by the viewer’s presence. Light pulses across the walls according to levels of human activity.

Budor views cinema from an anthropological point of view, seeking to explore how people interact with films and the way that fictional characters become part of a collective reality.

Images:

1. Dora Budor, Portrait

2. Dora Budor, Calando (2017), modified parabolic lamp fixture, LEDs, motion-sensitive Arduino system, metal hardware, 3d printed enclosures, polyurethane foam inserts, urethane resin, dye, amphibian props used in the film Magnolia (1999), 123 x 59.3 x 17 cm, courtesy of Dora Budor and New Galerie, Paris