It all started in Budapest in the early 2000s. IPek established Hungary’s first upcycling fashion accessories brand, Balkantango. She designed and produced upcycled bicycle inner tube bags and wallets locally, in a workshop based around female and queer employees. The Frottir Association: her first activist-artists' collective emerged from both the environmentalist, urban-activist community built around the brand, as well as of her circle of friends. The group’s social engagement was divers, doing projects to raise awareness onto the situation of people living in the streets, disadvantaged people and environmental issues. 
Since establishing this first association in 2007, IPek has been continuously active as a social activist and community developer. As a street artist herself, her methods are deeply rooted in public spaces. To develop her professional expertise, IPek has been working as an outreach social worker since 2020. Depending on the needs and possibilities of her current socio-cultural surroundings, she continues to design events, paint community murals and give plein air workshops. Despite being active as a social designer with her target groups — children, teenagers, women, the queer community, and people with a migration or refugee background — IPek shares her projects to inspire the next generation of socially active individuals and groups at universities, conferences, and political-artistic events.

Would you like to invite IPek to give a lecture on social design, socially engaged art, creative community development or solidarity project planning? Contact IPek here.