The Donkey Field weaves a link between a racist on a young boy on a piece of common land known locally as “the donkey field” and the story of the persecution of Marie and Balthazar the donkey in the acclaimed film Au Hasard Balthazar (1966).

The film features a text, based on sections of a memoir of Budapest in 1944, and scenes which re-enact and reframe Robert Bresson’s allegorical story about the scapegoating of innocent subjects. Partly shot on the streets of present-day Budapest, under a regime criticized for its anti-immigrant policies and harsh treatment of refugees, The Donkey Field underlines the relevance of the boy’s story to other, more recent stories of displacement and victimization.  The resonance of the subject with other traumatic historical episodes, is underlined by the removal of dates and place names and the use of initials and other substitutions.

Background: Seen from the point of view of the artist’s family member, a boy who was ten at the time, the film relates to the events that unfolded in Budapest from March 1944, when Hungary was occupied   by Germany, to January 1945 when the Siege of Budapest ended. The attack which features at the start of the film, significantly led to his discovery that of his hidden Jewish identity just as new brutal antisemitic laws were introduced.

Exhibitions of the film and associated works include:
Life’s More Important Than Art, Whitechapel Gallery, London 13 June - 3 September 2023 The Donkey Field. Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London 1 Oct – 13 Nov 2021
Imperial war Museum, London 27 – 31 October 2021
GLASSYARD Gallery, Budapest 11 November 2021 – 21 January 2022
BALTIC, Gateshead online programme, January 2022
Brewery Arts Centre Kendal 27 January 2022
CAST, Helston 24 March – 9 April 2022

Articles & Essays
Essay by Lucy Reynolds -LINK

Review by Martin Herbert Art Monthly No 442 December 202 -LINK Interview: TANK Magazine online May 2022 - LINK

Talks
TALK with Lucy Reynolds – Danielle Arnaud Gallery 13 November 2021
Artist Talk: The Donkey Field – BALTIC, Gateshead 12 January 2022 In conversation with David Campany, OffPrint London 13 May 2022 . Turbine Hall, Tate Modern