Kata Geibl was born in 1989 in Budapest and is a photographer living and working in The Hague. Her work is mainly focused on global issues, capitalism, collective memory and the ambiguities of the photographic medium. Her work Sisyphus received international attention, and was exhibited at UNSEEN Amsterdam which was, being followed by her first solo show in Budapest. She received the emerging talent Paris Photo Carte Blanche Award for that series and in the same year, she was nominated for Palm* Photo Prize. In 2019, she received the József Pécsi Photography Scholarship and was a talent for Futures Platform nominated by Capa Center Budapest.
She utilises subjectivity and storytelling as ways to visually communicate, allowing us our own way to perceive using a narrative that seems to be timeless and that hides amounts of prolific research. Playing establishing new visions of reality, she goes deep into issues of great importance and impact.
About ‘There is nothing new under the sun‘ – words by Kata Geibl:
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The Sun rises, and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the Sun.
Frederic Jameson once said that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. Our contemporary culture is hugely influenced by global capitalism, which affects every part of our life. The myth of society seems to be that if we work hard enough, we can become somebody. This kind of individualism led to the belief that we think that the world exists for the benefit of mankind. We crave perfectionism and at the same time we use the Earth’s resources as if there was no tomorrow.
As an artist, I always try to reflect on our contemporary culture and the world we live in, to mirror what happens in our society. I believe that we can all feel the rise of this new era even when we lack of words to describe it. The way we consume, inquire, vote, communicate, and work is rapidly changing every day. There is Nothing New Under the Sun is capturing the Zeitgeist of our time, without laying out answers to the viewer but guiding their minds and creativity into the direction of the story behind the images.
