M HKA Ensembles

° 1966

Lives in Budapest (HU), born in Budapest (HU).

Róza El-Hassan (°1966) is born in Budapest, where she still lives today. After studying painting at the Academy for Fine Arts in Budapest, she continues her studies at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and subsequently in the intermedia department in Budapest. Her mother is Hungarian, her father is Syrian, which spurs her on to question the formation of identity and society.

El-Hassan works with many different media, often covering ‘true to life’ political topics. Her work becomes directly involved with the subjugated ‘other', something the art world frequently chooses to neglect. In this way she works intensively at increasing awareness, concerning the fate of the Syrian people during the civil war.

While she is now internationally seen in a discursive framework, her work was originally primarily seen as imagining energies, such as for instance her literally mounted objects from the middle of the nineties. This dimension of her work can be seen in the mystical tradition of Middle Europe.

Her hybrid background sometimes lies at the basis of projects, which formed her artistic practice for the past 10 years, such as research and exhibition projects in cooperation with others. For instance, in Extra-Territoria, which she realised with the Serbian artist Milica Tomić, or in her research on social and artistic changes that were caused by the Arab Spring.

For her, the artistic and the social aspects are two sides of an integrated thought process that is searching for connections.