Programs

Drawing on Books VII. Eszter Bross: Secret Love

18/Dec/2025 18:00 - 19:00

The Drawing On Books are a visual experimental field for the MaDok program: we ask contemporary artists to draw on a black surface in the museum building, drawing inspiration from the publications of the Museum of Ethnography.

The seventh creator of the Illustrated Books is Eszter Bross.

Opening: December 18th, 2025, 6 p.m.

Short concert by Vehemencia band

Location: Museum of Ethnography, black wall next to the Etknow bookshop

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Love in peasant culture was simply love, whether expressed in the customs of Hungarian peasant society or in the traditions of our Slovenian neighbours in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Intentions were embodied in objects, emotions in symbols—signs that both the couple and the surrounding community could easily read.

The objects used to express affection were love gifts or engagement gifts, which couples and their families exchanged from the beginning of courtship until the wedding ceremony. Gift-giving could take place either secretly or publicly and was linked to specific events (such as the raising of the Maypole), holidays (like Easter), or rites of passage (such as wedding). In this way, the couple, their families, and the wider community became aware of the promise, the relationship, and its progression from one stage to the next. The items intended for girls were usually practical tools that they could use: most often a distaff (a painted, carved rod to which the fibre bundle is tied during spinning), a washboard, a small stool for the spinning mill, or a hoe cleaner. In return, the girl tipically gave a hand-embroidered cloth, handkerchief, apron, bouquet, or embroidered shirt.

The most well-known symbols of love gifts include tulips, peacocks, pairs of birds, floral motifs, and hearts, which were drawn, painted (filled with coloured wax using the technique called spanyolozás), carved, engraved, or embroidered. There are few objects that reveal more personal confessions or individual feelings. One reason for this is that in peasant society most marriages were arranged, and the gifts reflected social norms.
Eszter Bross's wall painting is also inspired by objects in the museum’s collection: distaffs decorated with coloured wax, shepherd's objects relating to secret outlaw love, monogrammed engagement handkerchiefs, gingerbread moulds, and the catalogue Love is in the Air. Behind the recognizable love objects and symbols, however, the indescribable and inexpressible feeling still appears.

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Eszter Bross is an animation MA student at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. The inspiration of folk art permeates her artistic interests. It appears not only in her animated works but also in her paintings, drawings, and in almost everything she creates or wears. Her zine Tükrös szív (Mirror Heart) was published by Gyros, a riso printing workshop; its watercolour images—like decorated gingerbread—can be given as small artworks in their own right. Eszter also created the music video for the song Szeretlek de fáj (I Love You But It Hurts) by the band Vehemencia.
 
Publication used for inspiration: Bojana Rogelj Skafar: Love is in the Air, Love Gifts in Traditional Slovenian Culture, A Néprajzi Múzeum kamarakiállításai 7., Budapest, 2002.
 
The Drawing On Books series is the visual experimental field of the Museum of Ethnography's MaDok-program, which focuses on contemporary phenomena. Within the framework of the series, contemporary artists create temporary wall drawings on the black chalk wall next to the museum bookstore, drawing inspiration from the museum’s publications.
 
Wall drawing: Eszter Bross
Series concept: Judit Gellér
Curator: Anna Zsoldos
Organisation: Kati Jákob-Bódi
Graphics: Tamás Boldizsár Hoffmann
Copy editing: Dóra Szentirmai
English text: Szilvia Lakatos, Anna Zsoldos
Professional consultation: Szabó Magdolna

Special thanks to Vehemencia band!

 

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Drawing on Books VII.: Eszter Bross: Secret Love
18/Dec/2025 - continuously
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