react/review: a responsive journal for art & architecture

During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Mexican-Hungarian photographer Kati Horna (1912–2000) produced visual materials for the anarcho-syndicalist union, the CNT-FAI (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo-Federación Anarquista Ibérica/National Labor Confederation-Iberian Anarchist Federation). From 1937 to 1938, she created photographs, photomontages, and collages that contain anarchist intonations. However, Horna’s own humanitarian-feminist voice can still be heard and recognized beyond the immediate goals of the organization. She was able to achieve this by combining Constructivist and Surrealist formal elements with a theory espoused by Lajos Kassák (1887–1967), the founder of Hungarian Activism, to create a heterogeneous artistic practice which extended beyond the traditional borders of a singular avant-garde movement. Horna inherited the belief from Kassák that artistic autonomy and politically engaged art can coexist, without allowing one to engulf the other. Her hybrid avant-garde presented a solution to the dominant interwar debate on how to create art that transformed life praxis (and by extension, politics) without sacrificing artistic autonomy. Horna’s participation in this discourse, profession as a photojournalist, and presence on the front lines during the Spanish Civil War challenged spaces traditionally reserved for men. Her creative voice uniquely resonates in these spaces due to her constant compassion towards her subjects and her creation of a hybrid avant-garde.