common places

http://www.indymedia.hu/foglalthaz/

1074 Budapest, Dohány utca 57, door-bell 128
http://www.indymedia.hu/foglalthaz/
The single most salient feature of the urban environment in Budapest, even for a visitor making their way through the city for the first time in fifteen years, is the number of abandoned or vacant buildings. In the city center alone, on our first evening’s walk from one bar to the next, we counted fourteen vacant multi-story buildings over less than 20 blocks. There were many more walks to and from many more bars over the next few evenings, and it became impossible to keep count. And almost all the pubs we ended our evenings in were set up in the courtyards of abandoned buildings; surrounded by trees, ivy-covered walls and hundreds of laid-back patrons, it was impossible not to wonder about the four stories of windows above us, vacated, in many cases, years ago. One was a former school with dozens of classrooms; a former bank, or ministry, factory or apartment building. (more…)

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The Ludwig Muzeum bears all the markers of a weighty investment: grand staircase, massive lobby with security system and guards, the cool geometric logic of a corporate structure. It seems, indeed, like a massive effort to develop, promote and legitimize contemporary art in Hungary. With all its wonder and gravity, culture looks down upon us. I am surprised and not unimpressed by the importance of “contemporary art” in the vision of the Hungarian state and wonder, as always, what is at stake in the development of such massive public (national) institutions. Suffice it so say we are prepared, even as we approach the building, even before we enter the lobby, to encounter Great art — and we rehearse, with every step, the well-behaved patterns of the Good Spectator. The promenade is quite long as we circle the building, so we have plenty of time … even as we move around the plaza, as we complete this ritual walk, we are becoming immobilized. (more…)

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Trafo House of Contemporary Art – Liliom Utca 41, 9th District, Budapest
Dinamo – Tuzoltó street 22, 9th district, Budapest
common_places was invited to exhibit at Dinamo, where the archive was available for three days. please see images for more details.

Trafo House of Contemporary Art in Budapest occupies an intriguing position in the landscape of cultural institutions in Hungary. At one end of the spectrum are the newly enlarged and consolidated giant public institutions (the Ludwigmuzeum or Kunsthalle, for instance, the big-boys of Hungarian cultural edifices, organized architecturally in the new Palace of the Arts complex). At the other are the various alternative cultural spaces, artist-run galleries and (private) galleries. Trafo is big enough as a cultural institution to demand serious support from the various governmental agencies, yet small enough to not be beholden to “official” culture. (more…)

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Hints Report – June 15. 17.00 Ludwig Muzeum

The group Hints invites everyone for an afternoon pick-nick, as the next stop in the series of talks “Report” curated by Katalin Timar, curator in Ludwig Muzeum. In this Pick-nick Event, held on bubble wraps used to package the wrtwork from the exhibition Nomadic Service, you can also meet guests of Hints:
Jan Danebod, Danish artist and street art freak with his Freaks Gallery.
Rozalinda Borcila (USA), who arrives to Budapest with her travelling archive, called common_places(www.commonplacesproject.org). You can browse in the entire collection in Dinamo (Tűzoltó utca 22.) on June 14 and June 16, and at the Report in Ludwig Muzeum.
Finally the project of the group Dynamite (USA) called Potential Energy will be introduced, which was show in Chicago in May this year (www.dynamitefamily.com).
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common_places hosted by Dinamo, an autonomous cultural space in Budapest run by Katarina Sevic and Hajnalka Somogyi.
June 14th – 16th – public presentation of the archive. Participants in collective projects (art, writing, curatorship, activism and so on) are invited to stop by and share experiences based on their practice, information which will be added to the archive. Please contact contact@commonplacesproject.org if you are interested in contributing materials about your group to this project. We would love to meet with you.
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new friends – get to know the Vector group! we were hosted by their gallery, spent a few evenings at their favorite hang-out, and visited the neighborhood in which they are involved with one of their most serious projects: cARTier. Vector is a group of artists and intellectuals who maintain a gallery space, organize an international biennial festival entitled Periferic, generate and sustain a local discourse around notions of the periphery (manifested, in part, through an up-coming publication). cARTier is a four-year pilot project in Romania in which this group works with tenants of apartment buildings in the Tatarasi neighborhood to develop collaborative, location-specific projects.
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rozalinda conducted a presentation and a performance workshop on saturday, from 3PM to 7:30 PM. 23 of those who came to the presentation stayed for the workshop, which we think is a huge success. the workshop was developed around a series of instructions involving impossible tasks, which participants were given 60 seconds to attempt. there was no talking, no consulting, no time to think, plan, to decide and only then to act. decisions were made as we engaged with our tasks, and not before.
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common_places brought 70 lbs of material to Vector Gallery in Iasi — many thanks to the Vector Group for their help in setting up the show and hosting the archive, esp to Matei Bejenaru who was our initial contact, main organizer and who drilled over 90 holes in the wall to hang our plastic bags. our materials were organized, this time, by longevity — left to right on the wall, the collectives with the longest duration to the left, the ones that are either the most recent or that have had the most brief existance on the right. this placed in immediate proximity dramatically different collective efforts — VideoFreex were next to RepoHistory and Umbruch BildArchiv , Kanak Attak was next to the Fluff Constructivists and Living Units. this also helped break down the division between collectives and resources on collectivity, ie between specific practice and materials that theorise collectivity at a more meta-level.
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Our next hosts will be the Vector Association, a group of artists in Iasi, Romania — they have invited us to bring the archive to their gallery. Rozalinda Borcila, one of our members, has an exhibiton there and common_places is presented as part of this show. Many thanks to Vector for hosting us in their space. The archive will be there June 2-12
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