Instead of a Top List: Inspirations and Stories from 2025

The KONTUR Magazine Editorial Team’s and Authors’ Year-End Reflection

The end of the year always calls for taking stock: we look back at what has stayed with us from the past months, which experiences, works, encounters, or even words have shaped our thinking the most. This year, Kontur Magazine’s year-end selection adopts the familiar format of popular top lists, but instead of the usual ranking logic, it is built around personal stories. Guided by five questions, our authors and editors recall the moments of the year that were most defining for them.

We thank our readers for staying with us this year as well. We wish you an enjoyable read of Kontur’s authors’ year-end questionnaire below!

The most inspiring visual art / literary / musical / theatrical / film experience of the year
Right at the beginning of the year, I discovered Letterboxd – and more recently, the fact that I can log the films I’ve watched there – which has greatly shaped my film consumption this year. Perhaps thanks to this, I had so many great film experiences in 2025 that I can hardly choose just one. Still, one moment I’d like to highlight: on a June night, I watched Murnau’s Nosferatu on a giant screen in the Fiumei Road Cemetery, accompanied by live choral music – an eerie, goosebump-inducing experience!

The most inspiring non-artistic experience of the year
In August, I took part in a Vipassana meditation retreat: ten days of noble silence, waking up at four in the morning, ten hours of meditation a day, turning inward; no phone, external stimuli reduced to an absolute minimum. It was a profoundly uplifting experience – hundreds of small successes and failures each day, a difficult but honest encounter with myself. In the end: smiles, peace, and love. I find it very hard to carry this into everyday life, so now (right as this article is being published) I’m repeating the experience – this time serving on a course.

My biggest professional challenge / my favorite collaboration this year
My professional highlight this year was researching Imre Bak’s pedagogical activity. As a result, my first printed publication appeared after six months of research in Balkon 2025/5. In this project, everything that interests me came together: art-theoretical research and concrete art-pedagogical methodology. My favorite collaboration was our art-education group called Puhatoló – Spatially Sensitive Practices, run together with intermedia artist Richárd Melykó, which we hold regularly at my workplace, the Kincskereső School. This year, we presented it to the wider public for the first time as part of the Hengermalom project – it’s currently on pause, but we’ll be back at it from February!

The thing I was most looking forward to this year – and its realization
Prague! I’ve been living here since September. Officially, I’m spending my Erasmus semester in the MA program in Art History at ELTE’s Faculty of Humanities. I fell in love with Prague when I was here on a class trip from the “Kisképzős” (Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts and College – ed.) and happened to turn eighteen while in the city. It’s amazing that now I can wander its cobblestone streets every day and zip around on trams. From a cultural point of view, it’s unbeatable – I can barely choose among the abundance of film, contemporary art, experimental music, gastronomy, and other festivals and programs. I haven’t been able to afford this much cultural leisure time since high school. (And in the meantime, I recently became an aunt as well :))

My word of the year
Without a doubt: nádraží. It was the first Czech word I learned – it means railway station. I first arrived in Prague through the main nádraží, and I also live near a smaller one now; every day I hear the tram announcer call out the stop. I also like its metaphorical meaning: Prague is my first longer stay abroad, which says a lot about me. So it’s an important station – one that, hopefully, will be followed by many more.

The most inspiring visual art / literary / musical / theatrical / film experience of the year
This year I tried to read as much as possible, and literary experiences probably had the greatest impact on me. I would like to highlight Paul Murray’s Irish family novel The Bee Sting, in which the story unfolds through the characters’ differing perspectives and tones, gradually revealing a traumatic past and its effects on the present. Toward the end of the year, I read three or four short novels by Annie Ernaux as well as The Years. I find especially these shorter, autobiographical – what she herself calls autosociobiographical – works to be absolutely brilliant, with their spare style and the way they combine the personal with the socially resonant.

I spent a significant part of the year in Brussels, where the cultural offering is quite rich. I particularly enjoyed the local spring festival, the Kunstenfestival, for example Saodat Ismailova’s forest-based film performance (Arslanbob: The Healing Forest), as well as two performances by Tienzuo Chen (Asian Dope Boys).

The most inspiring non-artistic experience of the year
Perhaps our trip to Morocco in November had the greatest impact on me; I traveled there with my partner. It was the first time for both of us in North Africa, and we are certain we will return. It may sound like a cliché, but I was captivated by the colors, the smells, the food, the countless incredibly cute stray cats, the jewelry, the Atlas Mountains, the Jardin Majorelle, the rooftop terraces, the souk (market or bazaar), the mint tea, and the hammam (public bath). Inspired by this, we watched the film Sirāt (released in Hungarian as Dance in the Desert), set in the Moroccan desert, which for me was one of the most disturbing and shocking film experiences of recent years – yet perhaps I would still recommend it rather than not.

My biggest professional challenge / my favorite collaboration this year
Both a challenge and a very rewarding collaboration was curating the exhibition Holding Space this spring at Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna, which was my first joint curatorial project this year with Judit Szalipszki (two more followed; the exhibition Ink in Milk is currently on view at Trafó Gallery until January 11, 2026). Working with the KEX team was truly great, and we were able to create an exhibition in which many of our previous interests and research areas converged: the point of departure and central motif were built around the practice of the doula.

The thing I was most looking forward to this year – and its realization
Between 2021 and 2023, I studied in the MA program in Curatorial Practice at the University of Bergen. Unfortunately, the program was discontinued this autumn, so in June the head of the department and the driving force behind the program, curator Anne Szefer Karlsen, organized a large-scale event that functioned simultaneously as a conference, a meeting point, and a shared communal gathering. Circuits of Experiences, Research and Knowledges took place over three days in Bergen, Norway, featuring numerous inspiring lectures, workshops, and performances by alumni as well as invited curators, artists, and researchers. It was a great honor that, together with Norwegian curator Anne Beate Hovind, we delivered the opening conversation – held in the forest at the top of Mount Fløyen.

My word of the year
Perhaps independent – or freelance. Since May of this year, I have been working as a curator in this capacity. After six years of institutional work, this is not only a major challenge but also a great opportunity. For now, despite all the difficulties, I am really enjoying it and feel ready to start working in a new place, in another city (Brussels). This also brings to mind one of my best series experiences of the year, which explores the separation of work and “private” identity in a utopian world. I highly recommend Severance: it is at once humorous, socially critical, and deeply unsettling.

The most inspiring visual art / literary / musical / theatrical / film experience of the year
Samu Gryllus’s Hostage Opera, which I saw this autumn at A4 in Bratislava. This interactive, improvisation-based piece offered something new in all of the above categories. Musically, it is based on the sound painting technique, realized by a chamber ensemble of local musicians and a spontaneous “chorus” formed by the audience, all under the guidance of the composer (who also served as the conductor). The narrative draws on a long-suppressed hostage-taking story from Balassagyarmat during the communist era. Visually, it is equally compelling: in the background, the performers’ portraits appeared on a large screen via live cameras, enriched with various effects (a solution originally inspired by the COVID pandemic).

The most inspiring non-artistic experience of the year
Standing in the surf of the North Sea and eating cold pink-and-green dill beet soup (chłodnik) during our holiday in Poland. Both filled me with a childlike joy – of the kind that, I believe, adult life grants us only in fleeting moments.

My biggest professional challenge / my favorite collaboration this year
There were quite a few challenges and collaborations this year, and most of the time the two overlapped. For example, editing Kontur Magazine, which I’ve been doing for almost a year now; realizing my solo exhibition Persona Cannabina; and organizing my first In Situ artist residency. If I have to choose just one, the greatest challenge was creating the performance levet, felfon, lélegzik – Magica Cannabina. As for collaborations, the best was the exhibition with the Rethinking Eastern Europe collective.

The thing I was most looking forward to this year – and its realization
Exactly a year ago, I received an email informing me that I had been selected for an exhibition by the Rethinking Eastern Europe creative collective, which took place at Copeland Gallery in London. This became both the most anticipated and the most exciting event of the year – my first exhibition “across the sea.” I flew with artworks packed in my suitcase, and together we installed the show, put up posters, and welcomed a record number of visitors. It was a very affirming experience to work with such an enthusiastic, open, and professional team.

I also had plans this year to obtain my driver’s license and to switch to reduced working hours at my workplace – both have been postponed to 2026. 🙂

My word of the year
Although I learned a few new words in foreign languages as well (for example čečina, which may sound Italian but in Slovak means a pine branch), I would still choose a Hungarian one: ellentérképezés (“counter-mapping”), which I learned from an article by Luca Fábián. Read it so you can find out what it means too!

The most inspiring visual art / literary / musical / theatrical / film experience of the year
Sometime in early summer, I saw Gisèle Vienne’s stage production Extra Life at Trafó (Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest). Beyond the fact that it personally captivated me, I believe it resonated even more strongly within the local spatial and temporal context. It is an extremely sensuous work that nevertheless engages with heavy subject matter, using the tools of contemporary dance to reveal the impossibilities of processing childhood abuse in adulthood.

The most inspiring non-artistic experience of the year
For years I had looked on with a grimace at the Zala-style bread sauce (zalai zsemlemártás) that appeared at family lunches, but this year, gathering all my courage, I finally tasted it. Despite its indescribable appearance, it tastes very good; today I even think it might be the vegetarian path forward for Hungarian gastronomy.

My biggest professional challenge / my favorite collaboration this year
2025 will certainly remain for me as the year in which I had to write the most. I was, of course, very happy about this, although it would be nice if this activity didn’t have to be done only while sitting in front of a screen. Two commissions were especially gratifying: one was a review published in the anniversary zine of the Labrisz Lesbian Association, and the other was a review of Eszter Őze’s book.

The thing I was most looking forward to this year – and its realization
Travels to Denmark and the Czech Republic; during the latter, the exhibition And We’ll Never Be Parted by Anna-Eva Bergman and Hans Hartung; the new books from Ø Publishing and Bázis Books; L.A. Suzi’s new album; and finally the exhibition by Dorottya Szonja Koltay and Anna Seress at the Kassák Museum. But above all, I was most looking forward to the reopening of the Szekszárd library, which – despite all my initial mixed feelings – turned out to be the best thing that could happen to a provincial town.

My word of the year
Through the collaboration between ELTE’s Faculty of Humanities, Atelier Interdisciplinary Department of History, and the Romama Apartment Restaurant, I had the chance to visit Tomor in Borsod several times in 2025, where we embarked on a participatory heritage research project with local Roma youth. As a result, we also organized a workshop and a concert in May at the Józsefváros Museum. During the several days of fieldwork, I learned countless new things from the community; among them all, my favorite word (and food) was vakaró: a type of Roma flatbread baked by women directly on the stovetop with their bare hands.

The most inspiring visual art / literary / musical / theatrical / film experience of the year
For me, one of the most memorable artistic experiences of the past year was a production by the company of the Ioan Slavici Classical Theatre in Arad, which brilliantly reimagined William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from a contemporary perspective. The performance addressed important themes such as female solidarity instead of rivalry, the importance of consensus, the parody of stereotypical gender roles, as well as anxiety and isolation – conditions often described as the defining ailments of our time.

The most inspiring non-artistic experience of the year
The snapshots and moods of my birthday in Budapest: the caress of the wind during a boat ride on the Danube, the scent of the halls of the Hungarian National Museum, and above all the taste of hot, cinnamon-scented churros dipped in chocolate at a Spanish restaurant where I was able not only to savor divine food but also to get a taste of a fascinating other culture.

My biggest professional challenge / my favorite collaboration this year
This year, my greatest professional challenge was clearly my first biennial experience: the Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara (I didn’t organize it – I only reported on it here in Kontur :)). The truly honorable and significant task was to convey, in a worthy way, the professionally coordinated work of a team made up of exceptionally talented people, and the transnational stories that unfolded from it.

The thing I was most looking forward to this year – and its realization
This may come as a surprise, but one of the events I most eagerly anticipated this year was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker (also at the Ioan Slavici Classical Theatre in Arad), which I had never seen before, despite it having been on my bucket list for a long time. Although no tears actually fell, I felt as if I were crying on the inside, overwhelmed by an almost otherworldly beauty and grace that, for a brief moment, allowed me to forget the many horrors taking place in the world.

My word of the year
This year I came across Andrea Vészits’s young adult novel Ábris and the Azure-Blue Rat (2025), which not only creates a captivating world but also invents a distinctive language of its own. My favorite word from the book is “rengetegzöld-érzés,” which could be translated as “the feeling of deep green.” The protagonist – a fur-allergic little boy, overprotected by his parents – uses it to describe his first-ever visit to a forest with his grandmother. For me, this expression speaks simultaneously of respect for nature and of freedom.

The most inspiring visual art / literary / musical / theatrical / film experience of the year
The most intense artistic experience of the year was undoubtedly seeing my five-year-old daughter perform in Our Nutcracker, a musical dance fairy-tale production on the main stage of the Győr National Theatre. The performance was a true communal celebration: more than three hundred performers from thirteen dance schools moved together, ranging from classical ballet to hip-hop.

The most inspiring non-artistic experience of the year
Spontaneous encounters with strangers that unexpectedly turn into long, deep conversations. They always inspire me, yet they are becoming increasingly rare.

And while we’re on the subject of life’s small joys: just a few steps from my workplace is Bott Bakery, where the cardamom braid and a latte are nearly unbeatable. Along with the kind service, these morning moments and breaks are what make my days brighter.

My biggest professional challenge / my favorite collaboration this year
The greatest professional challenge was participating in the conference Hungarian Surrealisms: Surrealist Ways of Seeing and Visual Topoi in Hungarian Visual Culture, where, alongside the most prominent figures in the field, I had the honor of representing Slovakia as the sole participant.

My favorite collaboration (still) revolves around film projects. I entered this world about three years ago thanks to director Lea Podhradská, dramaturg András Kocsányi, and cinematographer Krisztián Ollári. Since then, I’ve been working with them – during my virtually non-existent free time – on productions of various scales. Although I deeply love the profession of art history and the museum environment, the world of film is equally soul-soothing for me. It is a particular joy that one of the projects in which I worked as a production assistant was released to the public in November and achieved significant success: at the Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival it won the award for Best Hungarian Documentary, and it was also included in film.hu’s Top 10 selection of the best Hungarian films of 2025.

The thing I was most looking forward to this year – and its realization
I had hoped for a lot of travel, rest, and a bit of time for myself, but in the end these all landed among my plans for 2026. 🙂

My word of the year – the one I used most often
I would highlight the Slovak word beží (“it’s running”), which is a simple everyday verb but became one of the key terms during film shoots. It marks the moment when filming actually begins: the camera and sound are recording, and the crew falls silent. As a foreigner, I am still learning Slovak, so it was particularly interesting to me that Slovak film jargon uses such an ordinary expression for this crucial moment on set.

The most inspiring visual art / literary / musical / theatrical / film experience of the year
This year, that title perhaps goes to the programs of tranzit.sk focusing on personal archives, such as Michaela Nagyidaiová’s project, which processes the experiences of her grandmother of Greek origin, who arrived in Slovakia as a refugee fleeing the Greek Civil War. Since over the past year I have been increasingly thinking about how archival photographs can be turned into a relevant exhibition within public institutional frameworks, projects like these always serve as valuable sources of inspiration – perhaps one day the idea itself will also take tangible form.

The most inspiring non-artistic experience of the year
This year we adopted a dog, and it has been a formative experience to realize that earning the trust of a living being is by no means a given. The transition from initial reserve to “forming a pack” requires a particular kind of presence, which is both a challenge and a very good way to practice focused attention.

My biggest professional challenge / my favorite collaboration this year
The greatest challenge of 2025 for me was clearly juggling a full-time institutional position with independent projects realized alongside it. I would like to lull myself into believing that this will get easier over time – but I’m not quite that naïve.

The thing I was most looking forward to this year – and its realization
Szőke Erika’s solo exhibition at Artus Studio in Budapest, which I curated. Erika’s artistic attitude is immensely inspiring, as is working with her. At the heart of the exhibition is the analogy between the universe and our earthly living space, which is capable not only of altering how we perceive our environment but also of calling into question the relevance of humankind itself.

My word of the year
Pulparindo, a Mexican “candy” that I had the chance to taste during the Sérum Light Festival. It is made from the pulp of the tamarind fruit and flavored with sugar, salt, and chili pepper, making it simultaneously sour, sweet, salty, and spicy. If someone asked me what I would compare its taste to, I’d say it’s like putting on a Miles Davis record. I can recommend both.