not far - special edition (signed+print+1booklet)

by Ildi Hermann

Photographs: Ildi Hermann

Publisher: selfpublished

80 pages

Pictures: colour illustration throughout

Year: 2012

Price: 165 €

Comments: 16x 22 cm, English, Paperback, book + print+ 1 original booklet of cottages from 1965, in a red/black box

Not far away from home

It was quite an achievement to get hold of a holiday home during the years of socialism and these homes were typically small modern houses with tiny gardens not far from Budapest, preferably close to a lake or a river. To furnish them with items not needed at home became a norm. Everybody applied cheap solutions; completed these holiday homes with humble makeshift pieces often in a kitschy way. At least they were homely. These homes helped people to forget about foreign holidays which were out of their reach anyway and at the same time raised the number of their assets, therefore helped them to feel more important. It was a good deal for both parties; for the people as well as for the state.

These uniformed mass-produced holiday homes; these small eating and sleeping ‘capsules’ typical of the era are still in use and full of life. For many people they recall their childhood and long gone happy holidays, they are reminders of a pleasant period from their family history as well as a highly thought after era of the country, therefore they are important. Today – although due to other reasons- escaping to a second home is equally important. It is unavailable for many, just like in the old days, but this time the obstacle is not ideological.

Ildi Hermann introduces this sphere with humour. Nostalgic feelings are secondary, since they are not prescribed in the images, but rather initiated by them in the viewers. However this retro aesthetic is misleading; Hermann presents us with current realities; the unchanged world of the holiday homes and holiday makers, their never changing objects, food and the familiar atmosphere of it all.

Time stands still behind the garden gates sometimes, the passage of time can be a mere illusion.

Zsófia Somogyi, art-historian

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