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Research-based socially engaged art project

We tend to take public utilities that make our home comfortable for granted. We reach home, turn the light and the heating on. We use hot water to take a shower, to wash our clothes or dishes. But what about the ones who are not given access to these basic utilities and services in Hungary? How do these shortages shape their lives and perspectives?

Inactivity, resignation, and apathy are common features of the dominant mainstream visual representation of communities living under such conditions. Very few would think how active and creative a person needs to become in order to cope with the situation. Countless individual and community-based daily practices are invented that necessarily but ingeniously adapt to often particularly challenging circumstances.

In these places, space and time exist in a different dimension. The concept of private and public spaces is transformed. The interior of a home is narrow and multifunctional, the kitchen is often also used as a bathroom, while the yard is already a communal space. In the absence of utilities, activities such as getting the firewood or other solid fuel for heating, fetching water from a public well, carrying it home, heating and using it, add several extra hours of housework to the life of a local family. In addition, maintaining living spaces built of poor quality materials is extremely time-consuming and costly: the walls keep getting wet and mouldy, require constant repainting, and pieces of furniture are quickly destroyed.

PAD team

Diána BERECZ; Dániel BOZZAI; Eva BUBLA; Barnabás NEOGRÁDY-KISS; Gergely PAPP

Sponsors

Summa Artium, OFF-Biennále Budapest

Special thanks to

Everyone who spent time and energy on showing their homes and the everyday challenges they need to face.

As well as to Szabina Bencze, János Szilágyi, Mária Szilágyiné Tóth, Antal Burai, Nikoletta Farkas, Alexandra Keresztes, János Tóth, Sándor Rigó, Károly Francz, Orsolya Francz Károlyné, Ildikó Bencze, Krisztián Keresztes, Zsolt Keresztes, Judit Csatlós, Judit Dobák, Balázs Máté Tóth, Amin Rezai, Bálint Jaskó, Balázs Kristóf Németh, Dóra Vajas, Ágota Visnyovszky, Juli Rácz, Berta Moór, Marko Mrkobrad, Réka Imre, Dávid Karas, Kristóf Kovács, Márton Mézes, Gergely Molnár, Zoltán Ferenczi, Attila Sirbik, Tünde Varga, OSF Public Health Program, Partners Hungary Foundation, Roma Press Center, Council of Tatabánya, Tatabánya Museum - Mining and Industry Skansen, A Vértes Agorája, Council of 9th District Budapest, Hanzlik Pál Studio, Prop Club Ltd., ASS, FKSE, AQB, Digitális Képműhely, 2B Galéria and Mozaik Hub