What is the FLAIR of Budapest? What is the atmosphere of the city I come from? Do I feel at home there? What does it mean to be “at home”? What city of the future do I want? 22 participants from Skopje, Florence, Berlin and Budapest discussed these questions.
Giving shape to thoughts and feelings
The result was collages with pictures that the participants took during various explorations of Budapest. In other words, just bits and pieces of photos, nicely arranged and nothing more? Far more than that. It was a process facilitated by photographer Gabriella Csoszó.
It began with the simple question: Where do I feel at home? Everyone contributed a picture of their own city, a landscape, a house or similar. In turn, the participants explained their choice of picture. This led on to collecting associations with the words “at home”. They mentioned “free development”/”freedom”, “security”, “peace”, “home food”, “rituals+ceremonies”, “comfort”, “where I feel strong”, “nature”, “mother tongue”, “silence”, “neighbourhood”/”community” and many more.
Home moments in Budapest
The participants then formed small groups to photographically record their perspectives on Budapest. What seems interesting? What creates the feeling of “home”? The younger ones were drawn to the current “trendy neighbourhood” in the VIII. district. Others favoured the castle with its views of the city. Back home, the pictures were uploaded to a platform and presented to each other.
The following day, the participants walked through a large, room-filling and serpentine-like gallery of their pictures. They grouped the associations with the words “at home” and then got together in small groups. They worked diligently and with concentration to combine images and words into compositions, creating pictorial messages. Some absurd, some serious, others soaked in fantasy, full of humour and rich in their own reflections. They created works on “free development”, “neighbours, friends, community” and “nature”, “Memories”, “Comfort – Routine – Ceremonies”.
A group process
The results, the collages, show a colourful bouquet of possibilities for thinking “city” and “home” together. They reflect a process that brought people from different countries, generations, lifestyles and political views closer together and was stimulating, motivating and often amusing for them. They probably didn’t feel “at home” during the workshop. But they experienced a group, discovered similarities and learnt from each other. They had good experiences with their own potentials and those of others. This might shape their standards for what is good for life- and what is not. And: they had a lot of fun together.
From Damascus to Berlin
At the start of the workshop, participants from weltgewandt e.V. presented theatre scenes that they had developed themselves. The protagonist lives as a successful businessman in Damascus, is caught up in the war, flees, experiences terrible things in the process – and has to start all over again in Berlin. The scenes were very moving. Some people in the audience were fighting back tears. In turn, the encouragement and appreciation gave the performers strength. The message was clear: we, the people, pay the price for war. With our taxes. With the traumas that wars cause. To make a note: The play will be performed in Berlin on 10th September 2024.
“Budapest was really great.” “What a wonderful experience.” “We did so much in four days.”
Many thanks to InSite Drama for organising the workshop, especially to Adám Bethlenfalvy and Julcsi Szábo.
The encounter took place as part of the project “FLAIR – the city as a nexus of community and society“, funded by the Erasmus+ programme.
