Aliz Farkas: I.L. ⤅ Beyond Bare Life, curated by Eszter Lázár, Edina Nagy, Drégely street 19., 2026

This artistic research focuses on works produced between 1923 and 1925 by a person diagnosed with schizophrenia at the Pécs Clinic of Neurology and Psychiatry. Many of the drawings feature a hermaphrodite figure. Instead of taking a medical perspective, I attempted to reinterpret these drawings from a critical point of view informed by contemporary queer-theory.

During his stay he produced numerous drawings, which Irén Jakab psychiatrist connected with texts written by I.L. as well as information in his medical record. In the description of one drawing depicting a figure with breasts and male genitalia, Jakab mentions that L.I. often reported nightmares in which he himself appeared as a hermaphrodite. For the interpretation of the figures that appear in the drawings, an important detail is the description of the patient’s physical features: the documents emphasise that he was pale, with bright red patches on his face.

The same intersex representation can be seen on each of the two identically tailored coats that form part of the exhibited ensemble, but the openings of each garment cover a different part of each drawing, thereby revealing two heteronormative bodies.

The third garment type is based mainly on depictions of the “torpedo woman”, from which I created a somewhat futuristic shell. Alongside the forms themselves, through embroidery and the use of various materials, I incorporated not only L.I.’s visual motifs but also excerpts from his texts as they appear in Irén Jakab’s book Pictorial Expression in Psychiatry (1998). The coats subtly allude to the practice of pathologisation and to the physical reality of the medical environment, incorporating formal elements drawing on clinical clothing and instruments of restraint.