‘Transient Ties’ is a collaboration with my grandmother Lena, exploring her identity as a former political refugee and the bonds between home, displacement, and cultural heritage. Until I was about twenty-two, I wasn’t aware of her migration story. Due to the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) she had to flee her home in northern Greece and moved to the former communist Czechoslovakia. Lena was never repatriated to her native environment, struggling to find connection to her Macedonian identity. She continues to live in Slovakia, where individuals are highly polarised on migration. Out of all the countries in Europe, Slovakia has the third lowest proportion of foreigners living in the country.

Michaela Nagyidaiová (*1996, Bratislava, SVK) lives and works in Vienna. She graduated with a masters degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication in 2019. She has been a member of ‘FUTURES’ since 2023 and ‘Women Photograph’ since 2021. Her work analyses the connection between landscape and memory, the transformation of Central & Eastern EU topography, migration, and identity.

michaelanagyidaiova.com