The international collective that runs the walk · listen · create platform will hold a two-day urban exploration workshop in the outer Erzsébetváros.
The two-day workshop by Babak Fakhamzadeh, Geert Vermeire and Andrew Stuck takes its inspiration from the dérive practice of the Situationists and invites you to an unconventional exploration of urban space. The workshops will take place in “Csikágó”, or the outer Erzsébetváros, where PLACCC runs Szendvicsbár Community Hub in collaboration with artists and art collectives.
About the workshop
Particularly since the introduction of smart phones, we have come to rely on ever fewer, ever more unified, tools to guide us, both in familiar and new environments. We have been handing over agency to tools that tell us what to see, what to do, and where to go. But with a world of information in our pockets, the variety of what is offered to us and what we seek out is actually getting smaller.
The workshop Walk&Create aims at putting the strategy of dérive against the dominance of the so called ‘corporate map’.
A dérive is a strategy for moving through a city or a space, wandering aimlessly without direction or a destination in mind. To do a dérive, walk without a destination, following instead what catches your interest. In French, dérive literally means drifting.
Developed in the 1950s in Paris by The Situationist International group, a dérive aims to break down and renew your everyday relations with the spaces around you.
The Situationists also drew attention on how the public space was being increasingly commercialised and proposed the ‘psychogeographic’ approach instead. Psychogeography is the way different spaces or environments make you feel and behave – as well as the people, buildings and changes in atmospheres.
In the frame of Walk&Create – Urban Exploration Workshop, together with the international collective walk · listen · create, we invite everybody interested to explore the outer 7th district, also called Csikágó – a part of the city which has gained a special importance for Placcc Festival, since we are running Szendvicsbár Community Hub together with artists and art collectives in the area.
The participants will have the opportunity to follow an introduction to the history of the area by Dóra Kolocz historian, and will be made more familiar with the ideas of the Situationists, the manipulation of public spaces and the dominance of the corporate map.
We invite the participants to walk and see another way – but also to create. The workshop will lean on the mobile Dérive app, which is mobile collaborative app and platform designed for urban exploration on the user’s own term.
About walk · listen · create
walk · listen · create (WLC) is the home of walking artists and artist walkers, as well as Sound Walk September, the Sound Walk September Awards, the Marŝarto Awards, and Placecloud. They are a network organisation of artists who use walking as an integral part of their artistic practice, at the moment bringing together over 1500 contributing artists from around the world.
WLC operates on a plain that is bounded by sound, or audio, place, or location, and technology. Technology is not just mobile phones or computers, it’s also pen & paper, rocks, and anything that can be used as a tool.WLC is maintained by Babak Fakhamzadeh, Geert Vermeire and Andrew Stuck.
A walk in Csikágo with Dóra Kolocz
Keleti Railway Station, Garay Market, Bethlen Square, ceramic paving stones, Róth Miksa, trolleybuses.
There is one place in Budapest where all these things meet. In the fascinating stories of Outer Erzsebetváros, we wander from squalor to luxury, explore the history of crowded, dirty tenement blocks and recall one of the capital’s first greenfield projects. Chessboard-like structure of the streets, ‘workers’ hostels’ and astonishing stories near Keleti Railway Station, home to one of our most famous artists, Miksa Róth. Let’s explore some of the streets of the district to understand how the Hungarian Csikágó was created, what did the birth of a new district at the turn of the century mean for architecture, literature and history? And above all: what does the quadrilateral bounded by Dózsa György út, Thököly út, Rottenbiller utca and Damjanich utca mean for Budapest and the people of the capital?
The walk is led by Dóra Kolocz, historian, museologist, cultural manager.
Dóra Kolocz, historian, museologist, cultural mediator. She has been involved in the scientific and public education activities of museums and cultural institutions for almost 10 years, and has developed and organised dozens of programmes for children and adults, cultural and artistic events and exhibitions. She feels most at home when his profession and activities are closely linked to community building, whether it is running an internship programme, creating a community museum or sharing urban space and stories. She is a lecturer at ELTE, a permanent walk leader of Pestbuda Walks, and a host and idea manager of cultural and historical programmes in the capital.
Workshop schedule
25 May 2023
15.00-16.00 arrival, coffee, introduction
16.00-17.00 walk in the area with Dóra Kolocz historian
17.00-17.30 break
17.30-18.30 presentation of walk · listen · create (WLC), Dérive app and Placecloud
conceptual background (WLC): Situationists, dérive, tyranny of corporate map
18.30-19.00 wrap-up of the day
26 May 2023
15.00-16.30 try-out of existing Dérive app task cards
16.30-17.00 break
17.00-18.30 creating new tasks in Dérive app
18.30-19.00 wrap-up of the day
Location
Szendvicsbár Community Hub
1078 Budapest, István u. 27.
The workshops will be held in English and Hungarian.
The organisers provide translation if needed.
Registration fee
Normal: 3000 Ft
Student, retired, local residents (of the 7th district): 2500 Ft
Supporters’ ticket: 6000 Ft
The registration fee should be paid by bank transfer after the registration. The bank details will be sent in the confirmation email of the registration. The registration can’t be considered completed without the payment of the registration fee.
Please register HERE