The bridges of Budapest
“She arrived at the bridge and crossed it to the centre, now walking heavily because the snow opposed it and from the Danube there was a wind that grew below, a difficult one, which sticks to you and harasses you.” ‘Lejana’ by Julio Cortázar.
In 1951, the writer Juilo Cortázar published his book of stories ‘Bestiario’, the first story book which the writer felt that really expressed what he wanted to say. One of those stories is ‘Lejana’ (‘Far’). ‘Lejana’ is a fantasy story in which a woman, Alina Reyes, from Buenos Aires, feels the cold, the pain and the angst of a woman who lives in Budapest. She feels her like if it was herself. She feels her double. The story is beautiful and you can find it on the internet. Towards the end, Alina from Buenos Aires and Alina from Budapest meet and hug on one of those bridges which cross the Danube.
I ask myself in which of the bridges which cross the Danube and join Buda and Pest will Cortázar have imagined that hug?
On the Chain Bridge? That’s the oldest and most famous. It was inaugurated for the first time on the 20th of November 1849, after 20 years of construction. During the Second World War it was destroyed. Afterwards, in 1949, it was inaugurated after its reconstruction. Maybe we could consider it the perfect place for the union of a person and her double, with it being a bridge which is actually two: the 1849 one and the 1949 one. Also, the Elizabeth Bridge, which was built in the honour of the Empress Sissi, is two in one, rebuilt after the War. But something discards it: its recent reconstruction was in 1964 and, as we already said, Cortázar’s story was published in 1951.
There are six other bridges to take into account (and to visit when you go to Budapest): The North Rail Bridge, which as well as being a bridge for the railway also can be used by people and bicycles; the Árpád Bridge, inaugurated in 1950, probably in the same year that the Argentinian writer began to plan his story although, thinking about it, a new and modern bridge would not be as attractive and poetic for a story such as ‘Lejana’; the Margaret Bridge, designed by a disciple of the French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, which we shouldn’t rule out because we know that Cortázar lived and loved Paris.
Out of the three remaining ones, it could also be the Liberty Bridge or the Petőfi Bridge, but the one which definitely wasn’t was the Lágymányos Bridge, which was built in 1995, eleven years after the death of the author of ‘Rayuela’.
vali
When you go to spend a few days in the city, having booked already apartments in Budapest for your stay, take ‘Bestiario’ by Cortázar with you and read ‘Lejana’ on one of its bridges.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Rammstein concert in Budapest
The most extreme sounds of the German scene are probably electronica and metal. It’s no coincidence that bands such as Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Metallica and Exodus, Thrash Metal greats, swear blind that the European crowd, especially the German one, is much more extreme than the American crowd. It’s so much so that in the 80s, after leaving a Slayer concert in Germany for example, you could find a sea of glass, broken bottles, metals and chains, as well as traces of blood of course, on the stages where this extreme band played. In the same way, the quantity of incredible thrash metal bands which have played in Germany along the years is very long, and some of them are already classics: Sodom, Destruction and Kreator.
The history of electro, in Germany, is also long. You just have to give one single name: Kraftwerk. Formed in Düsseldorf under the name of Organisation, later Kraftwerk, the voyage of this band begins with the most experimental Krautrock, with sweet and travelling sounds, until they became ‘Menschmachine’, creators of techno before techno, and the rest of inventions which impregnated electronica in the following years. Of course that the debt of Rammstein with acts such as Throbbing Gristle or Einstürzende Neubaten is also, more than obvious. But in the case of these two bands, predecessors the the punk generation, the industrial and the experimentation looked to impact on lacerating levels with the staging and the use of non-conventional instruments, had more to do with a matter which faced the same terms as live performance, outside rock towards the performative.
Now, what Rammstein does isn’t exactly metal or electro, maybe something like rap. How to define a band which uses thunderous guitars, quick phrasings, industrial sounds and a German tone of voice which borders opera, to put it in some way. Rammstein today, is like an invention of the 90s, from the ‘Trainspotting’ generation, and from the years that, for the first time, mainstream became in apparent honest communion with the industry and independent music, which actually never happened of course. Rammstein is part of the ‘Neue Deutsche Härte’ movement, a term invented for the new genre which they were, supposedly, promoting with other bands such as Oomph!, Stahlhammer, Samsas Traum and Megaherz.
Today, the Rammstein experience is bordering parody, and in many cases it’s derisory. Rammstein’s passage in the musical industry, and with its supposed hard and industrial sound, isn’t but the answer that they’re still being distributed by a label like Universal. They’ve sold millions of albums and their apotheosic concerts, full of violent images, drama and special effects, are another live show which is interesting to see if what you want is, of course, that the musical media carries on constructing false gods, false images and generating more sales for artists who aren’t exactly new or refreshing. For more information on Rammstein and their tour, you can visit the following website:http://www.rammstein.de/
Alexa Ray
Get apartments in Budapest to be able to relax properly after the concert.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Rammstein concert in Budapest
The most famous band of the Neue Deutsche Härte, is on tour with its biggest hits, I’m talking about Rammstein. The Germans are tuning their machinery for an extensive tour that starts in Europe and extends for the rest of the world in 2012.
Rammstein was formed in 1994 by Richard Z. Kruspe, Paul Landen, Till Lindermann, Christoph Schneider and Cristian Lorenz, all of them are still current members of the band, which from the beginning stood up from the others, because of their industrial metal sound that they call “Tanzmetall” which translated into English would be “Metal to dance.” The name of the band is due to a small problem with the spelling of a German city called Ramstein, where a very serious plane accident happened in the late eighties. According to the members of the group, such mistake was due to an mistake in the spelling of the name of the city with two m, but the truth is that it has double meaning as the word made ramm stein mean something like “the stone that sinks”, also, because of the verb “to come” (rammer), but hey, this is already a subject for another discussion, as have the meaning that has the name of the band, the fact is that since their first gigs in bars and clubs in Germany to this day they have sold more than 12 million copies of their albums worldwide, which have changed the life to their own lives and their fans.
With 8 albums released, adding to the over 20 singles, live DVDs, photographic works, etc, etc., The band decided to record a compilation work of all their hits, called “Made in Germany 1995-2011″, name of the tour that takes them to Budapest, which will be their second stop. The concert will be held in the Papp László Budapest Sport Arena on the 10th of November at 20:00 hrs. For pricing and more information, please check the attached link: http://www.rammstein.de/tour2011/index.de.html
Luz Obscura
A tremendous opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, on one hand, to enjoy a beautiful and historic city, and on the other, to enjoy a band that will play all their greatest hits and more. Rent apartments in Budapest and be part of “Made in Germany 1995-2011.”
Translated by: Hans
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József Szolnoki: Homeopathic Reality in Budapest
Until the 31st of November, the Ernst Museum in Budapest exhibits the interesting exhibition ‘Homeopathic Reality’ by the Hungarian conceptual artist József Készman. The exhibition explores the transience and the changes, aspects which have marked the memory of Hungary due to the great changes which they’ve experimented in the last twenty years.
The exhibition explores through this word which defines a type of medicine, the social and political acts of Hungarian society. Homeopathy is a term which comes from the greek word ‘homolos’, which means similar, and ‘pátosz’ which means suffering or harm. Homeopathy is based on curing illnesses with something similar to what caused the illness, and it has a deep holistic meaning, curing body and soul. A thesis argued by allopathic medicine, especially because its principle is that the patient receives every time concentrates dissolved in water, which will make a bigger impact on the damage.
The work of József Készman is based on this logic and it looks to promote comprehension in a similar way as homeopathic truths. His work tries to confirm the cultural and relational impacts aided by an investigation on the audience, where he explores onirical movements which he then puts into images in his videoart.
József Szolnoki, known as Szokó, is an important Hungarian artist who works with multimedia. He currently lives in Cologne and is a member of the Hungarian art team Kaos Camping.
In his work, he refers us to his childhood expressing the relevant things from that time of his life, which completely defined him, his angst to explain how he became into a communicator first and and then into a party member in the very same week. Confusion and angst are what his questions on coexistence of ideological systems different to the souls and minds of the people express.
Szolnoki looks for the essence and mystery of identity in his work ‘Homeopathic Identity’, looking at the Hungarian society as a body which has amplified all the relations with harm derived from the cultural influences which he has lived through in this process of changes which took place in the 20th century, and which are finally the cause of the appearance of identities.
Therefore, just like in homeopathy, Szolnoki proposes that the cure to all pain is to inoculate all that produces harm dissolved in an infinitesimal way, to manage to recover the health and soul of society. This deep work on social pain and angst where memory plays an important role, takes the spectator to get to know the spirit of Hungary.
A great conceptual proposal brought to you by Szolnoki in this exhibition, where he constructs and deconstructs formal language to give meaning to his aesthetic proposal, which has many political art codes.
For more information: http://www.mucsarnok.hu/new_site/index.php?lang=en&t=590&curmenu=106
Nancy Guzman
Hungary and its magic always motivate us to go and visit it. So if you have time and want to enjoy a rest in the stressing final days of the year, remember that you can have a great time in apartments in Budapest with views to the Danube, in one of the most exciting cities in Europe.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Yona Friedman in Budapest
One of the most important retrospective exhibitions of the work of the artist, architect and urban planner, Yona Friedman, opens on the 28th of October 28 at Ludwig Museum in Budapest. This exhibition, which will be on display until the 8th of January 2012, covers theoretical processes, artwork, projects and drawings by Friedman.
The Exhibition is organized to cover almost all relevant aspects of this artist, including the development of his work as an architect, urban planner and the theoretical approaches that have become a required source for young artists and architects who produce works using as a stage the public space or are worried about it and the link of them with the individuals.
Yona Friedman was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1923. He is considered one of the most important living contemporary artists in this country, despite his French nationality. He was famous for his anticipating theories about urbanism and also for building interesting concepts that revolutionized the way we see the development of cities and human settlements, raiding models based on sustainability. He also explored the animated film and design.
He is considered the father of utopian architecture; his proposals are always placed in areas bordering the creation and theory, even leaving many of his statements in an “unsolvable” state in terms of technical and practical aspects. Hence the name of utopian architecture.
During the World War II, he managed to flee from the Nazi repression and moved to the city of Haifa, Israel, where he stayed for over a decade. In 1957 he was finally transferred to Paris where he became a citizen in 1966.
In 1956 he participated in the 10th International Congress of Modern Architecture in Dubrovnik with his “Manifesto of the mobile architecture”, revolutionizing the art scene with his perspective on the creation of cities, where inhabitants can enjoy the freedom of movement, breaking with the idea of rigid architectural structure.
Among the applications or forms of materialization of the “mobile architecture” he proposes the concept of “Space City”, which raised the possibility of building mobile and adaptable spaces, detachable and changeable for their own inhabitants. A revolutionary idea of social architecture, that ended up permeating his entire career and his work.
In 1958 he founded the research group Mobile Architecture (GEAM), not for long, but with a short productive life, the group was dissolved in 1962, being a fundamental reference for the process of change and transformation in the early 60′s.
Among his most important works are the Cylindrical Shelers a construction proposal for immigrants, done in 1953, Span-Over notebook in 1958, where he developed his manifesto Mobile Architecture and in 1989 the Science Museum of La Villette in Paris.
In the area of the theory, the publications: Toward a Scientific Architecture at MIT Press, 1975. Meina Fibel in 1982 and Pro Domo ACTAR D, 2006. These and other publications reported a proliferation of theoretical and supported his effort to make room for thinking about a better life in cities.
For more information http://ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=763&menuId=44
Nancy Guzman
If you’re spending a romantic autumn in apartments in Budapest walking through its beautiful streets and enjoying the amazing architecture, you cannot miss the Museum Ludwig and this second to none exhibition.
Translated by: Hans
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Budapest Planetarium
For the ancient Greeks at the beginning of everything there was the Void, an infinite and very black void where it was impossible to see anything and all boundaries blurred into nothingness. In this vacuum called Chaos, Gaea was born. Earth emerged from Chaos to firmly and clearly represent and stabilize its antithesis (although in its depths it reproduces its original chaotic state) and give the world a ground to walk on.
Well it seems that the world would’nt be much without earth, hence the human have a need to explain everything, even the inexplicable. There is a constant escapade in the mystery of the origin of the species, there is the Nietzschean who prefer to believe in nothing rather than not having anything in which to believe in, there is the impulse that led to Einstein himself, terrified of the inevitable implications of his scientific discoveries , usually in a reassuring way, to invent a constant universal law to mantian a ground to keep us safe so an entire world will not vanish from under our feet
The ancient Greeks, like many other cultures, tried to explain what was there before the world took its form and which we know about through a series of memorable myths and stories which today, despite the fact that names on them are still everywhere are as fascinating as ghosts barely known.
Somehow, the stories in the news seem to be confusing, they increasingly seem just like the Greek Chaos: a black abysmal and undifferentiated night. On the other hand, as they become more sophisticated, most seem to resonate within the remote voices the create, while displaying a seductive language often more appealing to imagination than to cause trembling and awe. Throughout thousands of years in different parts of the world, cultures spoke about the same things in not very different way. Stories that teach us small contemptuously myths and superstitions considered expendable
Ours do not seem less fragile, however, no matter what the need for land is , occasionally things happen, new “findings” that undermine the self-sufficient arrogance we possess. Things such as the recent “discovery”, which we shall best call “sighting of a new star” in the Milky Way that is almost as old as the age of the Universe. This star, SDSS J102915 +172927 called, given its composition, which apart from hydrogen and helium shows traces of some other heavier element and according to the scientific community should never have been able to form, which somehow returns us to the void once again. The new star is not in the beautiful Budapest Planetarium (http://www.planetarium.hu/) but it is such an evocative building that no one realizes that it is the star that shine brighter among the ones found there
Paul Oilzum
Do not miss the opportunity to visit this extraordinary place shaped as a flying saucer when renting apartments in Budapest If you do it on a rainy day, suitably accompanied, and recall the film Manhattan you will hardly find a more romantic place in the city. And if not the void seductively invites us, and that’s truly romantic.
Translated by: Marc
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Photorealism, Version of Reality in Budapest
Until January 15, 2012 the Budapest Ludwig Museum exhibits East of Eden. Photorealism a version of reality, which presents the enormous range of jobs and techniques developed by artists of the photo-realistic paintings movement of the 60′s and 70′s , which dominated the art scene in Europe and the United States.
The exhibition explores a movement while little known and often devalued by art historians, is undoubtedly part of the development of Western art, which from its earliest forms to the neoclassic movement of the late nineteenth century can be seen as an improvement in techniques that would eventually lead to photorealism.
The development of photography, enlargement and projection of images was surpassed in the 60′s and 70′s, facilitating the creation of new painting techniques including the use of photography in painting.
The exhibition includes works by many major artists, as well as others who have been forgotten and some that are unknown. Among them you can see the the work of Robert Bechtl, an American painter, considered one of the founders of photo-realistism along with Richard Estes, Ralph Goings and Chuck Close. His involvement in photorealism comes from his own photographs and the reality of San Francisco. His work can be found in the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art , at the Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian Institute, and Museum of San Francisco among others.
William Beckman is one of the exponents of photorealism that is part of the exhibition. Beckman specialized in painting pictures of high emotional content with a slight Freudian sexual overtone using a method that made him famous, he painted portraits, then sctaches the surface with a razor, then repaints and polishes the fabric creating brilliant images. His work is part of numerous public collections and can be found in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Kunst Museum of Modern Art in Vienna among others.
Bočkay Milan, a Czech painter deconstructs and achieves photorealistic images dealing with his fascination with surrealism. During the 70′s he achieved recognition with his oil paintings that presented enlargements of details of the human body and everyday objects.
John Clem Clarke is one of the most famous American pop artist of the 60′s . He was known for reworking old masters and then going the flea markets searching for old photographs or old images for his paintings. He was very prolific and inventive in creating photorealistic techniques, and is considered a master of contemporary American art for imposing icons that identify an era with his paintings.
In addition to the works of these great exponents of photorealism, there are more than 20 artists who use photo-realism as a method of artistic expression in their works.
For more information
http://ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=762&menuId=44
Nancy Guzman
If you don’t know how photography was used to perform great works of art and are curious about this technique, this is a great chance to explore it if you are on holidays in apartments in Budapest during this autumn.
Translated by: Marc
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Budapest Autumn Festival
Autumn is usually that time of the year that is often taken for granted, to which no one pays attention to. What I mean is that summer is always a solid block of heat and high temperatures while winter is bitter cold, it snows in some parts and there are fewer opportunities to leave home. Spring and autumn move from one pole to another. But autumn holds the promise of the end of an era, the days transfer from heat to a more comforting temperature. During fall longer walks occur due to the nice cozy weather, riding bikes, drinking coffee on the streets or just smoking a cigarette while the leafs fall of the trees is a tradition practiced by many. The smell in the streets also changes, the dry tree leafs spreads through the air, after every step you hear the rustle of the leafs under your shoes. Transiting through the city becomes more peaceful and especially if you live in a city like Budapest, the influx of tourists and walking is reduced and the center becomes more comfortable and interesting.
Budapest yet, despite the large number of tourists coming to the streets, does not reach the degree of madness that places like Paris, London, New York and Berlin have during their summers. Summer in New York for example, is very uncomfortable with so many tourists on the subway checking their maps lost in the vastness of the underground, filling the streets of Times Square photographing every single moving object, eating junk, food. The Eiffel Tower in Paris fills with never ending cues of people, the Thames river is plagued by a line of people taking photos. But Budapest, despite much of its tourism its magic remains intact. Imagine walking in autumn through the streets, feeling the beauty of the people of Hungary, enjoying your meal in the temperate climate of autumn without any haste, strolling through the ancient and romantic streets this wonderful city has to offer its visitors
Another reason to be in Budapest is the Autumn Festival taking place in this city every year. During these days, Budapest is full of options You can listen to or see the best art, music, photography, sculpture, dancing and many more experimental arts and fashion as well as all the new multimedia technology. Exhibitions and film screenings complete this great event. This is a feast for any art lover or anyone who wants to know more of what is done today in the world of contemporary expression.
For more information, visit the following website : http://www.fesztivalvaros.hu/
Alexa Ray
Get apartments in Budapest and discover the wonders that this city has to offer during fall, along with its its vibrant cultural scene that has something for everyone. Do not miss this opportunity during fall, where it is also possible to find very comfortable flights and mingle with people on the streets more in talking mood than in a smashing bars one. Budapest Autumn magic just for you and your people.
Translated by: Marc
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Bonusz in Budapest: Festival of Electronic Music
The effects of electronic music are probably different than those of other musical genres. Although the rhythm is repetitive, songs random and a constant mix of rhythm, voice and interpretation electronic music reaches the senses deeper than any other musical genre. Furthermore, the constant drug use at festivals, raves and underground parties leads to a more intense experience that opens our imagination, desire and body at parties come close to rituals in certain moments, one could call them technological. The inicial interest in electronic muisic derived from the experimentation with several effects and devices that generated frequencies for over 50 years. Eletronic music entered our daily life as an established music genre with many different forms and possibilities to dance and listen to with technology that continues to advance and new possibilities to create effects through computers.
Maybe it was the psychodelic master Timothy Leary who with his talks about LSD and its effect on the body who it itself represents an electronic machinery claimed that drug use will broaden the limits of our minds and with these new bodies through which we carry electronic impulses we reach new levels of imagination and reality which meant a possible evolution through the stimulants of LSD.
Leary caused such inspiration in the German community creator of thel Krautrock, amongst whom the electro’s fathers, Kraftwerk, it would be essential for us to understand that experience of mental and sensory expansion had to be done with effects and electronic devices: synthesizers.
Kraftwerk’s career till today needn’t be mentioned now, but it is to understand that resolution of the electronic effect in the sound has been changing with the different tools and devices that are used today, both for electronic music generation as in its reproduction. This way, electronic music festivals are pilgrimage events, of a subculture that without even realizing, is already a great part of the system. So much that there is already very few it can be offered and which it could re-assimilate as a chance or aspect towards the mainstream side. The festival corporation is present all around as we know, and it is not but from this corporation that one can better understand the music today and conglomeration it causes, as well as its reactions. Our links with PCs are today so close that thinking of moving away from electronic music and its possibilities is crazy. We are closer and closer of a future which, as Blade Runner said, implies an electronic Hill and artificial life, perhaps music is our insertion path in a future which is already happening, against our wills, and from our senses.
To live electronic music, come to Budapest and be part of this festival that is the best event of the year. For further info, visit this page: http://www.bonuszfesztival.hu/2011/
Alexa Ray
Find apartments in Budapest and be a part of this event, which brings you the best of today’s electronic music. Highly recommended.
Translated by: Maria
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Site Inspection at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest
With the 20th Anniversary of the first permanent exhibition, the Ludwig Museum presents until the 23rd of October ‘Site Inspection – The Museum on the Museum’. The exhibition focuses on the present discussion on the museum and its meaning on art, the artists and the public.
This exhibition is commissioned by Katalin Székely and, together with the museum’s curatorial team, she looks to expose the great changes that the museum space has gone through down the years and the critique that part of the artists have made in all this art process in the 20th and 21st century.
This ambivalent relationship of the artist with the institution has been regular and permanent in the world of art. A contradictory relationship where the artist requires: it, but at the same time directs his most intense critiques to the social representation space that museums are today: a space of power, a fundamental step in the market and a status mark and work value.
The exhibition puts special emphasis on the avant-gardist call of the 70s, both in the local and international space. This special outlook to avant-gardism is because in some shape or form, its institutional review can be considered a precursor of contemporary thinking spaces on the museum.
But we can’t forget previous processes on this critique, like the ones lived by the artists of the so-called avant-garde. Such is the case of Marcel Duchamp, who was one of the first to pose the paradoxes of work and its context, the relation between the artist and the museum and the one between the artist and the spectator.
For the conceptual artists of the 60s and 70s, this becomes crucial. The work loses or gains meaning according to its context and, for this reason, the museums transform into immobile and rigid spaces where the shapes and established spaces for each exhibition become disconnected from its process and from the relation with the spectator. For the avant-garde, the museum is part of the social gearing and, in the same way, ideology, representation of the shapes of social relation and the market in which they’re inserted. For that, its critique and investigation is directed to the social space as a whole.
This interesting and complex situation is well reflected in a series of films and videos that are presented in the film space in the exhibition, with works by artists such as Costa Gavras, Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock and Aleksandr Sokurov among others.
The artists that begun the institutional critic through their work or in their investigation projects during the 60s and 70s, they consciously made works that weren’t marketable and salable, many times, with the idea of carrying out a short or invaluable project for the logic of the market.
That way we can appreciate in this exhibition works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Andrea Fraser, Halász Károly, NETRAF, Dalibor Martines, Alan Sekula, Hans Haacke or Azorro Group among others.
For more information: http://ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=782&menuId=43
Nancy Guzman
If your destination option this summer has been to walk along the shores of the Danube and having a relaxing time in apartments in Budapest you can’t not visit the impressive Ludwig Museum and walk through this exhibition that gathers great 20th century contemporary artists.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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