Eszter Kállay
Eszter Kállay (1994) is a researcher, poet, visual artist, literary translator, and feminist activist.
She graduated from the Critical Studies master’s program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2021 and is currently a PhD student at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. Her visual artworks have been featured in numerous international exhibitions, including those at MUMOK Vienna, the Ludwig Museum, Trafó Gallery, and MUSA – Wien Museum Startgalerie.
In 2021, she participated in a one-month residency at Hellerau in Dresden, and in spring 2024 she was an invited resident at GuestRoom Maribor in Slovenia.
She has published numerous literary and theoretical works in both Hungarian and international journals. Her first poetry collection, Kéz a levegőben (A Hand in the Air), was published in October 2020, and her second collection, Vérehulló fecskefű (Celandine), in November 2023, both by Magvető Publishing. She translated into Hungarian Bernardine Evaristo’s novel Girl, Woman, Other, which was published in 2021.
She has worked as communications specialist for several Hungarian NGOs and is committed to work for fundamental women’s rights and social equality. In 2025/26, she is a visiting researcher at Princeton University.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2025/2026 – Departmental Guest, Princeton University
2024 – PhD in Art Theory, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest
2017–2021 – Master in Critical Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien)
2015–2016 – Erasmus+ Scholarship, Université Libre de Bruxelles
2012–2016 – BA in Romance Studies – French major, Aesthetics minor, Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)
Cultural Organization Work, Roundtable Discussions
September 2023 – Editor, For Mothers with Mothers: Solutions of Women’s Organizations to Support Mothers, EMMA Association
November 2022 – Coordinator, Curator, can we fix this_Fresh Fabrik talks, roundtable on women’s invisible labor in culture: Care/free: care, for free
June 2022 – Invited participant, Art Work and House Work, with Katja Praznik and Éva Bárdits, organized by Fordulat Journal
September 2021 – Organizer, HÍRDALCSOKOR live, public walk, performance, concert: Hírdalcsokor & Varsányi Sirens, PLACCC
May 2021 – Coordinator, Unity in Community Erasmus+ project
May 2021 – Organizer, Pedagogical workshop, OFF Biennale
May 2021 – Participant and Organizer, The World Stops if We Stop: Readers’ Theatre on Invisible Labor, Hírdalcsokor & Varsányi Sirens, OFF Biennale
February 2020 – Researcher, background research and interviews, Field of Opportunities, tranzit.hu
December 2019 – Participant, BAK Winter School, Bratislava
December 2019 – Workshop leader (with Bence György Pálinkás), Art Workshop on Human Rights Day, organized by Amnesty International, Kossuth Square
September 2019 – Art-pedagogy workshop leader (with Bence György Pálinkás): Self-image, Body Image and Social Media, Fasor Lutheran Secondary School (FKSE municipal project)
August 2019 – Organizer, Field to Field Summer School, Horány
July 2019 – Organizer, Co-curator, Waldsee exhibition, 2B Gallery
2015 – Editor, Remembering Without Memories, publication by ELTE students for the ELTE WWII memorial
Work Experience
September 2024 - Communications Associate, Roots and Wings Foundation
December 2022 – Communications Associate, EMMA Association
2022 – Communications Associate, PATENT Association
November 2022 – Lecturer, Werk Academy – course: Writing as Liberation
2020–2021 – Education Organizer, KALUNBA Nonprofit Ltd.
2020 – Lecturer, Corvinus University of Budapest, Study Abroad Program – course: Exploration of the Urban Space
2018 – Program Coordinator, Curator, 2B Gallery
2018–2022 – Volunteer, NEM! Women for Each Other Movement
2016–2021 – Volunteer, Invisible Secondary School (Rosa Parks Foundation)
04/2020–12/2022 – Intern, acb Gallery
Participation in Exhibitions as an Artist
May–June 2024 – Are You Just Sitting There Playing?!, video with Virág Lődi, part of Crèche – On the Past and Present of Nursery Care, May 28–June 20, ISBN Gallery, Budapest
April–September 2024 – Darling, You Wrote Something Wonderful, video, BROTLOS. Life without Security, April 24–September 1, MUSA Startgalerie, Wien Museum, Vienna
September 2023–January 2024 – Goodbye, Mirrors, artistic intervention in the exhibition Handle with Care!, Lumi Space, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
October–December 2022 – I Am Not Only Myself, video with Luca Markó, I Hold the Table with My Hands in Place of Its Broken Legs, Trafó Gallery, Budapest
February 2021 – Darling, You Wrote Something Wonderful, video, Common Set, exhibition of new FKSE members, Studio of Young Artists’ Association, Budapest
October–December 2020 – The Bread is Made of Stone – duo exhibition: Sári Ember and Eszter Kállay, Molnár Ani Gallery, Budapest
June 2018 – Losing Agency, sound installation, Casting a Shadow exhibition, MUMOK, Vienna
June 2018 – There is a Surprise Waiting For You on Your Desk, video installation, Death and Capitalism, Post-Conceptual Art Class, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Awards and Residencies
October 2024 – Junior Szépíró Díj - Young Writer’s Award, awarded by the Society of Hungarian Authors
May–June 2024 – Constructing Care, research residency, GuestRoom Maribor
December 2021 – Würdigungspreis, Austrian state award for outstanding theses
October–November 2021 – Garden Residency with Bence György Pálinkás, Hellerau, Dresden
April 2019–November 2022 – Amateurinnen Artistic Research Project, Austrian Film Museum, Vienna
Other Qualifications
May 2021 – Trauma-informed Support for Refugee Workers, Trauma Center
October 2020 – Psychological First Aid for Refugee Workers, Trauma Center
March–June 2017 – CELTA, Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Cambridge Assessment English, International House Budapest
Language Certificates
2016 – English C1, TOEFL iBT (Score: 112/120)
2010 – English B2, TELC
2011 – German B2, TELC
2012 – French B2 – advanced level secondary school graduation exam
2016 – French C1, ELTE
Colleges for Advanced Studies
2015–16 – Mérei Ferenc College for Advanced Studies
2012 – Eötvös József College for Advanced Studies