Britain's What's On Event Guide
Conversations around the kitchen table: Kincso Bede
On photography, belonging, inherited histories, and the launch of Porcelain and Wool.
Join us for a conversation between curator Catherine Troiano and Kincso Bede, exploring Bede’s photographic practice and its intersection with questions of belonging and legacy.
A Hungarian visual artist from Romania, Bede is fascinated by the communist past of her homeland. Her work evokes a personal view on collective histories that carved a deep chasm between generations: that of her parents, who lived through communism and the regime change, and that of Bede, who inherited their stories, experiences and their trauma. Bede’s practice delves into the complexities of cultural heritage, in a bid to move closer to her parents and the versions of their lives dominated by the voice, fears, desires, secrets and paranoia of Nicolae Ceau?escu and his Securitate.
In this conversation with Troiano, Bede will reflect on her experience as part of the Székely Hungarian minority in Transylvania, Romania, and how photography has mediated her view of tradition, self-definition and faith: ‘my parents' best-kept secret was their beliefs, their language, and their souls. This is me.’
The event is organised in collaboration with the V&A on the occasion of the symposium Fluid Futures: Recalibrating Land and History in Global Eastern Europe (29th November, V&A South Kensington). It also celebrates the recent publication of Bede’s monograph Porcelain and Wool (Hectic Books, 2025). The book’s title symbolises a delicate balance—porcelain representing fragility and refinement, while wool conveying warmth and resilience. Bede’s photographic style weaves together these contrasts, employing intimate storytelling to question inherited cultural codes while reimagining her place within them. Her work captures a tension between pride and critique, juxtaposing rural environments with modern elements to create an interplay between past and present that is is central to Bede’s practice.
Join us for a conversation between curator Catherine Troiano and Kincso Bede, exploring Bede’s photographic practice and its intersection with questions of belonging and legacy.
A Hungarian visual artist from Romania, Bede is fascinated by the communist past of her homeland. Her work evokes a personal view on collective histories that carved a deep chasm between generations: that of her parents, who lived through communism and the regime change, and that of Bede, who inherited their stories, experiences and their trauma. Bede’s practice delves into the complexities of cultural heritage, in a bid to move closer to her parents and the versions of their lives dominated by the voice, fears, desires, secrets and paranoia of Nicolae Ceau?escu and his Securitate.
In this conversation with Troiano, Bede will reflect on her experience as part of the Székely Hungarian minority in Transylvania, Romania, and how photography has mediated her view of tradition, self-definition and faith: ‘my parents' best-kept secret was their beliefs, their language, and their souls. This is me.’
The event is organised in collaboration with the V&A on the occasion of the symposium Fluid Futures: Recalibrating Land and History in Global Eastern Europe (29th November, V&A South Kensington). It also celebrates the recent publication of Bede’s monograph Porcelain and Wool (Hectic Books, 2025). The book’s title symbolises a delicate balance—porcelain representing fragility and refinement, while wool conveying warmth and resilience. Bede’s photographic style weaves together these contrasts, employing intimate storytelling to question inherited cultural codes while reimagining her place within them. Her work captures a tension between pride and critique, juxtaposing rural environments with modern elements to create an interplay between past and present that is is central to Bede’s practice.
Thursday 27 November
17-19 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL
FREE27 November, 7.00 PM
Hungarian Cultural Centre London
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