HORSE and ART RESIDENCY

It was a dream come true: Summertime lived with horses, seen with an artist’s eye...

This was made possible by a very special summer art residency in Hungary. Beáta and Márton Szmrecsányi have been hosting artists seeking to explore the human connection with horses since 10 years. Ten wonderful days on their large compound in the village of Barnag, not far from the famous lake Balaton.

HARP, the Horse and Art residency, was the meeting point for an exceptionally big group this year 2025.

https://www.horseandart.hu/en/45-2025_artist_residency#&gid=1&pid=1

We were 14 artists from 10 countries: USA, Australia, Japan, Mongolia, Germany, UK, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands and France. Exclusively women artists, from age 22 to 71, full of energy with a great range of sensibilities and temperaments. Quite a lively group!

The 10 days of the residency were packed with activities, beginning with personal artwork  presentations... 

...followed by lectures given by the Hungarian writer and equine ethologist Bettina Tóth about the behaviour and psychology of horses.

Often, we would sit in the middle of the herd of the seven horses. Some of them would approach and stay to listen...

The white mare joined our meeting, her eyes quietly closing… Don’t be fooled, the horse does not sleep because her eyes are closed. She is communicating on another level…

In another strong emotional moment, the group could witness the white horse lay down before us and drift away in her dreams...

Our hosts Beáta, Márton and their three sons have one big passion: horse archery. 

Márton and his sons hold top Master titles in international competitions of horse archery- and he and son Bendi are great teachers of this Hungarian tradition in their school.

Beáta has a professional art background, having studied at prestigious art schools in the UK. She is consecrating her time to transmit her passion of horses through art in many ways. Apart from her own art practice and lecture given at the residency, she has recently written a book "The Invisible Horse", researching worldwide known historical figures of riders such as St. George, to be published at the end of the year.

And she continues her mission with the ambitious project of creating a new discipline of Contemporary Art practice at the Hungarian Academy of the Arts (MMA - Magyar Művészeti Akadémia) in Budapest in fall 2025. 

So we all discovered the discipline of horse archery, learned how to shoot arrows, both on the ground...

...and on horseback, without saddle and stirrups, feeling like true amazones!

Besides all these rich experiences, meetings and evening gatherings, we guest artists still had time to create art pieces for the Open Day, where the annual horse archery show took place. 

Copyright of photographs: MRAZ Edina/ Kaori Kodama/ Angela Han

Artists and visitors enjoyed the powerful and graceful archery demonstrations... 

The visitors also seemed to appreciate the parallel art show in the big riding arena where we had been working the week before. There was a wide range of artistic propositions: Dancing, drawings, paintings, installations of objects, videos, photographies and animation film... 

Dance performance by Kim Badira /Netherlands (copyright MRAZ Edina)

Some of the art works exposed (all image rights: MRAZ Edina)

Laura Merz/ Finland 

I showed two art projects still in progress: ONE MILLION WHITE HORSES, a flag with print animation on 35 mm transparent film...

...and an animated storyboard engraved on a golden 35mm film RUN WITH THE HORSES (work in progress). More about these ongoing projects in an upcoming article. 

Some young visitors participated actively, producing some personal art works to take home. And last but not least, the group was joined for the exposition by fou former participants- and finally a man, a horse loving painter!

The next day, the blue horse flag was  carried by Márton galloping on his white dream horse Zselyke (pronounce: Jayke, approximately!) in the arena. These photographs and short videos will be mounted to a clip soon...

There were moments of fun, and moments of poetry, emotion and beauty...

It was an incredible artistic and human experience and  I certainly will go back next year, to shoot more arrows into the sand and spend time drawing in the middle of the herd. Exploring the secret of the dozing horse...

More drawing of the beautiful horses with exotic Hungarian names. Just how would you pronounce the name of this black mare with a strong character, Kökény?

You’d never guess: Cocaine...!

Köszonöm, Beata, Marton, Betti, Bendi Veronika, our hosts for your warm welcome!

And Thank you, the invited artists:

Kim, Onongua, Kaori, Laura, Hillary, Zoe, Nina, Angela, Julianne, Sophy, Priska, Luca and Samara, as well as Natalie, JKB, Louise and Lee for our creative exchanges and rich encounters!

See you next year!

“Encountering the horse demands not only to know about  the place it has occupied alongside man in history, but also its vision of the world and the mechanisms underlying its behavior. With a rich history behind it, the horse is perhaps in the process of taking on a new societal mission. After having been domesticated, educated and trained by man, are they now in a position to pass on life lessons to man?”  

Antoine, Soulage, Wattinne, Le Cheval coach. L’équicoaching : une expérience transformante, Yves Michel Éds, 2020