m.city - a contemporary light art installation



20. DECEMBER 2007. - 01. JANUARY 2008. - HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES - ROOSEVELT SQUARE



m.city

Each day, two of the installation's twelve themes will be displayed:

  • First theme: from nightfall to 9 p.m.
  • Second theme: from 9 p.m.
m.city

m.city

Péter Kozma's m.city light art installation attempts to bring a new perspective on the relationships of the city and art. Transgressing the first social utopias that accompanied the emergence of digital cultures, i.e. technical darwinism, Kozma tries to investigate how the network culture changed our spatial perceptions.

The typical phenomenon of the last decades is that cities are segmenting less and less according to a terrain-based system, but rather grow depending on and stimulated by the development of transportation, of infrastructural networks. Contemporary urban impressions are not based solely on natural and artificial environmental elements, but new dimensions of perceptions are opened by the immaterial, sometimes thick, changing, unstable and functional public and institutional networks.

m.city

The installation is an interpretation of the concept of the city in this age of information, an experiment on the thematic presentation of the meta-, multi-, micro- and memory-networks spreading through and connecting the city. It recalls the monumentality of the former market place Kirakodó Square, exposing the still unsolved role of the Chain Bridge in relation to the circular boulevards, the practice of favoring appearance over functionality in city planning. It is an attempt to visualize the displacement of the city center, the transformation of Budapest into a multi-center city, the urban organizational power of the information society. In reference to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, it moves the emphasis from a symbolic location of science, and focuses on making the hyper-context apparent, bringing light to the spiritual role of the networks, of Science. One of the themes will present a cross-section of the information networks.

m.city

Discussions on the themes, the concepts and the installation are open on the blog pages hosted at the mvaros.org website.

Péter Kozma (1961) is a swiss artist of Hungarian origin. For some time, he pursued a professional sports carrier and competed at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in the discipline of slalom alpine skiing. He completed his studies in Budapest, at the visual communications faculty of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. As a result of a series of open-air events at Frankhegy, he became a respected member of the Budapest party culture. He has been experimenting with light painting since 1995, in close collaboration with Dora Berkes (glass painter) in the earlier periods. He has been concentrating on individual exhibitions since 2006, bringing his installations to Berlin, Warsaw, Zurich, Duisburg, Essen, Budapest and Vienna.

m.city

Additional programs
The light art show will be accompanied by musical and dance programs every day from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. A colorful musical program will be delivered by the dj-s of Radiocafé and Tilos Rádió, Cinetrip, Love Alliance and Minimalheadz. A special program of this year's event is the dance-floor. Professional dance trainers will be teaching new dances and steps to visitors on Roosevelt Square, three times during the event. The tango soirée begins at 4 p.m. on December 22, folk dance and live folk music will be staged on the 27th, and hard rock music and modern dance will bring a little more excitement in the evening of the holiday crowd on the 30th.

m.city

Further information:
www.mcity.ch
info@peterkozma.com

Budapest fashion



In this post I recommend you a Hungarian website which is actually an online fashion and lifesytle magazine. The www.bpfashion.hu gives you a perfect impression of the Hungarian
fashion world.



The site is in Hungarian but its very simple structure makes the site enjoyable for foreigners, too. The concept is very simple. On the main site, photo-reports are listed about different shows/events. Clicking on them, you will see what does the recent Budapest fashion-world look like.:)



The editors are two beautiful Hungarian girls, Violetta Kertész and Sára Hajgató.
To beg for an English edition you can write here: info@bpfashion.hu


Millenium da Pippo restaurant




There are several Italian restaurants in Budapest but only few which are really good. Millenium da Pippo is one of them. Actually the place is Sicilian (saying Italian is too general), and their specialities are the Sicilian food especially fishes.



The restaurant is on the Andrássy street not far from Kodály Körönd. Lets say quite frequented place but maybe because its not a Hungarian restaurant its not really overcrowded by tourists.

The cuisine is the main point at this place but let me mention an other speciality, too. The interior is designed after the Millenium Underground which is quite near to the restaurant.

Millenium Underground:

(photo: frankps)

Interior of Millenium da Pippo restaurant:


Other thing I like at this place is their gadgets. For example this mysterious machine for cutting ham:


The reason I recommend the place is their food. I especially like the pasta (any kind of pasta) there. It has a real Italian soul.:) It is obvious that they pay a lot of attention to the food, bringing a real Italian taste to Budapest. They are very Italian in other aspects, too. We were there like three, trying to have a conservation but in some moments it was impossible because some Italian guys beside us (most likely the owners or their friends)were extremely noisy. But anyway I love Italian language:)

We ordered tomato soup (the waitress brought the pepper to the soup in a very cute grinder), differet type of pastas, red wine, coffee, mineral water and we paid like 12.000 Ft (apr. 70USD) for it. Quite reasonable in the downtown, though small Hungarian restaurants are definitelly cheaper in the surrounding streets.

Contact:

Website: www.milleniumdapippo.hu (unfortunatelly no English version)
E-mail: info@millenniumdapippo.hu

Opening hours: 12-24 every day

Cinetrip Rebirthday




The Cinetrip Parties were very special in Budapest in the 90's. The idea is simple. There are a lot of spas in the city. And there are a lot of parties, too. Why not to organize a party in a traditional spa?

After some years pause they organized a party again this weekend in the Rudas Baths and the next one is comming on the 1st of January:) Bikini is a must! Sense of humor is a must! And your dancing skills are also welcomed!

The organizers wrote this about their party:

"Once called mustafa-bath, then green-pillar bath, it was at Rudas at the foot of Gellért hill around 10 years ago that the inspiring water-movie fountain, cinetrip materialized , it sprang up amidst the moderately radio-active thermal water fountains, and by recreating modern soundtracks for old silent movies and enchanting bodies and souls, it charmed the guests clad in swimmingsuits, slippers and beach clothes, after a three-year break the phenomenon is back reborn as cinetrip-sparty, with 4 locations and a world-premiering visual-magic, the oriental conveniences are catered for by out new sponsor, djuice, and don’t forget your towel!"

Some impressions of the party (from: www.index.hu):


(photo: Földes András)


(photo: Földes András)



(photo: Földes András)

Are you ready for the Januar 1 party?:)

Cinetrip

Trafó: The Salt and Pepper of contemporary Art



There is a tradition reaching back decades in Western Europe of settling artistic centers and artistic institutions in empty industrial buildings. The Trafó House of Contemporary Arts opened in 1998 as the first of this kind in Hungary.

Trafó is an institution, a building, a place, a medium, vibrating, an intellectual adventure, risk, possibility. A house which belongs to the contemporary arts. A place, where life speaks about dance, theater, visual arts, literature, music. A theater, which has no company, and where the viewer is co-equal with the created-an opportunity, as well as the necessity to relate in a creative way. A place where emotion is allowed more space than the usual alongside abstraction. A place, through which we can look out into the world.

The Trafó building, once the electrical transformer station for south Pest, was built in 1909 as a work in the industrial turn-of-the-century style. It was put to cultural use by a French anarchist artistic group at the beginning of the 90's, who discovered the building, abandoned for more than forty years. Performances and concerts followed one another for a summer, and for a time it functioned as a dedicated building. The Budapest City Council bought the building with leftover funds from the unrealized World Expo, so that the legal successor to the legendary Young Artists' Club (FMK), formerly on Andrassy út, could convert it into n suitable, multifunctional, well equipped contemporary arts center appropriate to the current day. The Trafó House of Contemporary Arts opened its gates during the 1998 Budapest Spring Festival with a piece by Yvette Bozsik.


Contact


Trafó - House of Contemporary Arts
1094 Budapest, Liliom u. 41.


Telephone numbers

(+36-1) 215 1600 | Ticket Office
(Mon-Fri 2-8 pm, Sat-Sun 5-8 pm)

(+36-1) 456 2040 | Management, Press

(+36-1) 456 2047 | Business Department

(+36-1) 456-2045 | Workshop Foundation/Trafó Studio

(+36-1) 456 2049 | Trafó Coffee Bar

(+36-1) 456 2053 | Trafó Bár Tangó

(+36-1) 456 2050 | Fax

E-mail

trafo@trafo.hu

jegy@trafo.hu