We were lucky to catch up with Anna Pasztor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Anna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I wasn’t fully aware that I wanted to become an artist for quite some time, even though I had been exposed to art since my early days. I studied Romance Languages, specifically Italian and Portuguese, at the University of Budapest. During that time, I auditioned for independent theater groups in the city and was eventually invited to join one of the groups as an actress. This was just two years before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which was an unexpected and dramatic event. It was difficult to imagine pursuing an artistic and professional path in experimental theater in a country that was under the communist party’s regime. Despite this, there was a vibrant underground art world in Budapest during the 80s, with many artists who were brave enough to follow their calling and were independent from the power. My theater group was part of this movement.

Immediately after the Fall, society went through rapid changes, causing disorientation in a large part of the population. At that time, I was working as one of the top Italian interpreters in the city, earning a very good income. During those years two new avenues opened: the path to material wealth and political power. Real life became more appealing than Art, and the experimental groups ceased to exist. I knew that I needed to leave the country if I wanted to become an artist. That’s why I relocated to Lisbon in 1991 putting my most precious belongings in my car and driving through Europe. It was a radical decision that I don’t regret.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As mentioned, I entered the art world through experimental theater, which emphasized the actors’ physical work. This reignited my earlier interest in Dance. In Lisbon, I had the luck to have access to excellent training in contemporary dance techniques and it became clear that dance/movement was my true language. I got a certificate in “Community Dance” which meant that I was trained to work with community members who had no previous experience in Dance, and I learned how to develop community projects using Dance and Movement as a means of intervention.

I grew up with art around me – my grandfather was one of the founders and the editor-in-chief of one of the oldest newspapers in Hungary; he was also one of the founders of a prestigious theater and opera festival. (https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1sztor_J%C3%B3zsef_(laptulajdonos) Even if I was very little when he passed away, art was part of our everyday life at my father’s house.

This background formed my attitude towards the arts. I consider the presence of art as a vital necessity and not a luxury. There are many forms of art, and being and artist, I am acutely aware of the cost of producing art. Art can be many things: status symbol, investment, but for me, it is first and foremost the manifestation of spirituality that can be shared and which can create “communion” with other human beings.
Theater fascinated me because it focuses on characters and relationships that I consider the most important in life, as opposed to objects. I studied with directors who passed on Grotowski’s principles regarding artmaking: spirituality and connection with the audience.

For me, the continuation of that practice is working with communities, even if not in the field of theater. There are many ways to engage people in the Arts.
In Portugal, I founded a non-profit organization to foster dance activities with “non-dancers” and I produced several site-specific dance performances with the participation of community members and with the collaboration of the respective town councils in Portugal.

In 2003, I received an achievement grant for artistic research to study Laban Movement Analysis at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies of New York (LIMS), where I earned my Certification in Laban Movement Analysis in 2004.
When I arrived in New York City in 2003, I felt immediately at home, even if I had never been here before and I virtually had no connections.

My first New York project had a site-specific element, but it happened by chance and not by choice. A few days after graduating from LIMS I went to Central Park and on my way home, I noticed that something bizarre was happening in front of a luxury hotel. It was the “Wholesale” of Hotel Inter-Continental Central Park South New York. It was my first multimedia project where Photography and Video were just as important as Dance. I could only complete it with a generous grant from Outpost Artist Resources.

I always had an interest in film and video, but I was intimidated by the technology and the logistics. My choreographic work heavily relied on images, and I used video in most of my choreographies. Even in my theater group, we used video in our piece that opened in 1987. Over the years, living in New York I learned video editing and started to create videos; I was interested in documentary filmmaking.
Up until the great recession, I could easily support myself working as an art educator and a videographer in the City. It didn’t take long after that that I had to move to the Bronx without a car, a proper camera, a computer and with no reliable source of income.

I did what any committed artist would do in a situation like that. I put myself completely to the edge. I opened an apartment gallery and worked on a variety of projects that I could do with my limited resources, mainly installations. In this difficult situation, I got the support of Harvestworks for an interactive installation and the Puffin Foundation for another video installation. I also started to create paintings.

Even if I could reinvent myself working in a different medium, other than Dance or Theater, I missed the direct communication with my audience, the playfulness, and the excitement that only performative work can provide. In 2019, I created a transmedia project called “Golden Age” that had two parts. The first part was a performance, and the second part was an interactive website. I was finally able to unite my performative and visual art practices. It was to be developed into a more complex project, but the COVID pandemic put an end to it.

During the lockdown, I was very lucky that I could connect with a community of artists organized by Sarah Weaver as the NowNetArts Lab. It was wonderful to be part of the weekly presentations of this group that united brilliant artists from all over the world.

At the end of the lockdown, I was recharged, and full of creative energy and I created two new projects, both for the Bronx, as that was my residence. However, I could only realize one of them, “Love Tree” in the Lower East Side with the help of the Art Loisaida Foundation, the other, “Fabric Transformations” died, as it had too many local components.

I had to reflect on the ten years spent in the Bronx between 2012 and 2021. There were specific reasons why I could not complete any of my projects conceived for that place during those years for reasons that I can’t discuss publicly. In any case, it was clear that I had to move on and not dwell on the fact that I spent the most unproductive ten years of my life in the Bronx.

Interactivity and audience participation are important parts of my pieces. Now, I am working on producing my new multimedia project. Most likely, I will realize it outside of NYC.
I think the current dynamics of New York City are not conducive for creatives who are not business savvy. This is not to say that I do not appreciate business opportunities for artists, but I think that artists should have non-commercial opportunities. Unfortunately, the current ways of distributing public money for art are questionable, to say the least. There is too much money and politics behind the decisions.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Creatives can only truly flourish when society allows them the freedom of expression and when art is accessible to a large part of the community.

Art represents and reflects the society in which it is created, and artists are members of that society just like anyone else. Unfortunately, we live in a deeply unequal society, and this inequality is often mirrored in the art world. Furthermore, the last decade has seen a significant increase in the pressure of political correctness on artists and creatives, which has led to a stifling of expression and creativity.

Growing up behind the Iron Curtain, I longed for the freedom of expression, and I feel like I am experiencing a déjà vu.

Most artists create art to express themselves and communicate with others, but it seems that art has become a symbol of lifestyle and a tool for propaganda and investment. Understandably, people who struggle to make ends meet and live paycheck to paycheck may have little interest in Art with a capital “A”. However, if Art were more accessible to more people, it would ultimately support artists and the development of a thriving creative ecosystem.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are various forms of reward in art depending on the medium. In performative work, the excitement comes from interacting with peers and the audience, and “playing” together. When it comes to painting or video, completing a piece is an amazing feeling that sometimes keeps me up at night due to the joy it brings. Overall, it is incredibly rewarding to receive positive feedback from people who view my work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://annapasztor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annapasztorart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annapasztorart
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user93300669

Image Credits
My portrait – Jorge Goncalves 1998 Esther Boesche 2024 Golden Age – Brinzen Photography, Bronx Love Tree – Esther Boesche The rest of the photos – Anna Pasztor