about
Lilla Szász is a visual artist and researcher based between Budapest, Lisbon, and Vienna. Her delicate photo series investigate themes of intimacy, collective memory, and the politics of visibility, with a particular focus on feminist and post-socialist histories.
Most of Szász’s projects take months, sometimes even years, to complete, allowing her to form deep connections with the people she photographs. Her collaborative and research-driven practice often involves oral history, archival engagement, and participatory strategies. Whether working with young women in Hungary, post-Soviet youth in Russia, or contemporary lives in Cuba, she approaches her subjects by building relationships rooted in co-presence and trust.
With poetic imagery, she captures subtle details that reveal the complexities of human relationships. Her images tenderly portray vulnerability and offer an intimate look into the lives of marginalized groups, including sex workers, young offenders living in institutions, and others carrying various social stigmas.
She is currently a PhD candidate in Artistic Research at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, focusing on transgenerational memory and the ethics of representation. Szász’s projects have examined themes such as state violence, displacement, and women’s resistance across different regimes.
Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the Ludwig Museum (Budapest), Institute of Contemporary Art Dunaújváros (Hungary), Fotohof (Salzburg), Arles Photo Festival (France), Manifesta Biennial (Kosovo), Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art (Germany), Fotogaleriet Oslo (Norway), the National Museum in Warsaw (Poland), OFF-Biennale Budapest (Hungary), and Photo España (Spain). Her pieces are also held in collections such as the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art Budapest and the ICP Library in New York. She has participated in international residencies in Lisbon, Havana, Salzburg, and New York, and was shortlisted for the Rosti Pál Prize for best photobook (Greetings From My New Home, 2022) by the Hungarian National Museum.
Contact: szasz.lilla@gmail.com
CV
education
Since 2024: PhD in Artistic Research, University of Applied Arts, Vienna
1995-2000: MA in Art history, Russian language and literature; Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
teaching experience
2024: Workshop at Porto Summer School on Arts&Cinema
2018: Budapest Metropolitan University, guest lecturer
2015-2017: International Business School, Budapest, guest lecturer
2015: Független Képzőművészeti Tanszék, Flying Art Courses – guest lecturer (Part of OFF-Biennale Program)
2011: ICP, New York, Saul Robbins’ workshop Regarding Intimacy (guest lecturer)
2010: Kontakt Courses in Art Photography in cooperation with Mosoly Foundation: photography workshop in Berlin
2010: Kontakt Courses in Art Photography in cooperation with Mosoly Foundation (guest teacher)
2009: Kontakt Courses in Art Photography (guest teacher)
jurying at art contests
2013 – 2022: Member of the Jury at Fedél Nélkül (The Shelter Foundation “Without a Roof”), The Artwork of the Year tender
curatorial experience
2011: Margins, Poznan Photo Biennale, within the collective BRUN
solo exhibitions (selected)
2024: No Bread For Us, (with Rita GT) Gallery Liget, Budapest
2024: #Good morning bro, Gallery Inda, Budapest
2023: Three Acts, ArtistaXArtista artist residency, Havana, Cuba
2022: The New 20s: Challenges, Uncertainties and Resistances, University of Evora, Portugal
2022: Captured Liberties – Stories from the Salazar Dictatorship, ICA-D, Hungary
2021: About Love (with Maria do Mar Rego), Imago Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
2020: Histories of love (with Maria do Mar Rego), Gallery 2B, Budapest
2020: Greetings from my new home, Budapest Gallery
2017: Stranger in the Middle of Nowhere (with Judit Hidas), OFF-Biennale Budapest
2017: Our House, Gallery 2B, Budapest
2016: Positive, Bánkitó Festival, Bánk
2016: Dazzle, Gallery Inda, Budapest
2015: Positive, Gólya Community House, OFF-Biennale Budapest
2015: Positive, Gallery Liget, Budapest
2014: Feminine Laundry, Gallery 2B, Budapest, Hungary
2013: Foreign Field, Gallery 2B, Budapest
2013: Mother Michael Goes to Heaven, Gallery Liget, Budapest
2011: Life is beautiful, Balint Jewish Community Center, Budapest
2008: Fragments of desire, Gallery Liget, Budapest
2005: Golden Age, Gallery Liget, Budapest
2003: Portraits at a fair, Goethe Institute, Budapest
group exhibitions (selected)
2025: Women Quota 02, Selection from the collection of Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2024: Our Parallel Universes, WINTER GROUP EXHIBITION AT INDA GALLERY, Budapest
2024: Lisbon Photobook Exhibition and Fair, Arquivo Municipal de Fotografia, Lisbon
2023: HANDLE WITH CARE. Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2023: FIRST HALF ‘23, INDA GALLERY, Budapest
2023: UNVEILING, Liget Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2023: Let’s Pet, Robert Capa Centre of Photography, Budapest, Hungary
2022: I hold the table with my hands instead of the broken legs, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2022: 14. Manifesta Biennial, with Easttopics, Prishtina, Kosovo
2021: One Artist One Minute, Fotohof, Salzburg
2021: Waiting room, SOM, Semmelweis Medical History Museum, Budapest
2021: Cure, Robert Capa Centre of Photography, Budapest, Hungary
2019: No Place Like Home, La Junqueira Artist Residency, Lisbon, Portugal
2019: For Family Reasons, MODEM Modern and Contemporary Arts Centre, Debrecen, Hungary
2019: Red Umbrella Struggles, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany
2019: Women in 3 Acts, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, Norway
2019: We will not change our show, Dům umění města Brna, Brno, Czech Republic
2018: Vanishing Points 3.0, Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives, Budapest
2018: Women in 3 Acts, Gallery INDA, Budapest
2018: The Family of No Man, Arles Photo Festival, Cosmos Arles Books
2018: Women in 3 Acts, Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg
2018: Kibékülés, Pannonhalma Főmonostor
2017: The Way We See. An Overview of Hungarian Photography, National Museum in Warsaw, Poland
2016: Our heart is a foreign country, tranzit.hu and Studio Gallery, Budapest
2013: Still, MODEM Modern and Contemporary Arts Centre, Debrecen, Hungary
2012: Photo Espana – From Here, Museo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain
grants, awards & residencies
2025: Riad Al Massarah Marrakech artist Residency
2025: Shortlisted for the RU-ACAX New York residency
2024: Artist and Researcher in Residence Guiniguada
2024: Shortlisted for Kassák Contemporary Art Prize
2024: Shortlisted for Contested Desires Arts&Heritage program
2023: Shortlisted for the RU-ACAX New York residency
2023: Selected for Magnum Workshop in Hungary, Veszprém, with Thomas Dworzak and Jonas Bendiksen
2023: Artist Residency of Camara Municipal de Lisboa (with the support of Culture Moves Europe Mobility Grant)
2023: Selected for Photo-Match Portfolio review, Lodz Photo Festival, Poland
2023: Artista X Artista & Tranzit Artist Residency, Havana, Cuba (2023 January-February)
2022: Rosti Pál Award for the Best Photo Book of the Year (with Greetings From My New Home), Hungarian National Museum
2021: Art Defies Violence, 16 days against violence, Salzburg, First Prize
2020: Fotohof Calling Award, Fotohof, Salzburg
2019: Asylum Arts, Research Grant, Lisbon (2020 March – September)
2019: La Junquiera Artist Residency, Lisbon
2019: Hangar Artist Residency, Lisbon
2018: Budapest Gallery Artist Exchange Fellowship, Lisbon (2018 June-July)
2010-2011: Hungarian Eötvös Fellowship, New York, ICP
2008: Descubrimientos PHE08, Madrid
2005: ECB Photography award – Hungary today (third price)
collections
2023: Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapst: May You Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread (2023)
2020: Hungarian National Museum, Budapest: Greetings from My New Home book
2012: ICP Library, New York: Comrades book
Noorderlicht: Pandora’s Box
films
2019: Sunday afternoon (14:19)
2018: Blue Center (8:02)
2015: Positive (11:27)
2014: Uniform (1:46)
2013: Pea Podding (29:34)
books
2024: Seven Hundred Meters, published by INDA Gallery (designed by Réka Neszmélyi)
2022: Waiting room, published as part of Waiting Room exhibition (SOM, Budapest [2021])
2020: Greetings from my new home (together with Elsa Peralta), self-published book
2020: Histories of Love, self-published book (designed by Zoltán Szmolka)
2012: Daughters, published by FOTOHOF Salzburg
2011: Mother Michael Goes to Heaven, self-published book
academic publications
Elsa Peralta and Lilla Szász. 2021. TRACES. A visual essay with photography by Lilla Szász and words by Elsa Peralta. Mobile Culture Studies 7 (Materialities): 97–106.
conferences
2015: Left-wing feminism, Central European University, Budapest
2022: The New 20s: Challenges, Uncertainties, and Resistances, University of Evora, Portugal
2021: Art Defies Violence, Salzburg and Gendup, Center for Gender Studies and Women’s Funding, in cooperation with Fotohof Salzburg