Congratulations to Dorottya Vékony, recipient of the TÓTalJOY Prize 2025!

In her project Subfense and Other Soft Defenses, Vékony aims to explore boundary situations in which individual challenges are transformed into collective strategies of resilience. These experiences are captured through human relationships grounded in female solidarity, empathy, and acceptance, while also addressing the historical and societal embeddedness of violence against women.

Through a planned experimental documentary film and an object-based installation, she investigates how tools of self-defense and resistance can become forms of shared knowledge and collective action in a world where survival itself is often a political issue.

More about the project can be found in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdJZtRLsq1M&t=1s

The project, supported by the prize, is planned to be presented in the form of an exhibition in the autumn of 2026 – we’re already looking forward to it!

Many thanks to all applicants for their work, to the international jury for their participation, and to everyone who celebrated with us at the award ceremony.

📷 Imre Kiss