Drifting through Cityscapes Drifting through Cityscapes MTL final copy | Page 68

PRIVATIZATION
THROUGH
OCCUPATION
By attending the block seminar, we were introduced
to a time that most of us weren't really familiar or
connected to. In presentations, we learned about
'68 and the art that came out of those turbulent
times. During those few days in Budapest, we experi-
enced the city on our own ways, mapping the visu-
als, sounds, smells, communication, feelings. Com-
bining these two separate years, '68 and '18, we
managed to form an art concept which conveys the
spirit of past time in new art forms and mediums.
Mapping as a process is quite interesting for a group
project because individual experiences, combina-
tion of ideas and thoughts form a new view of Buda-
pest as a city, society, space. This view is more
broader, intricate, complex and offers much differ-
ent results on which artists can develop interesting
individual and group projects. We came into this pro-
cess with some previous experience, which we used
to fulfill our task to the best of our abilities. Taking in
consideration our strengths, we combined graphic
design, animation, video, multimedia, stage design
and conceptual art into a gesamtkunstwerk of peo-
ple from five different countries who worked quite
efficient as a group. During our research process, we
were talking about our ´68 photos, we tapped into
the theme of globalization as a strong contrast to
those past days and debated upon the state of
managing spaces n todays Budapest. Art forms as
occupation and performance, used in ´68, seemed
as a good medium for our project idea. As a main
theme, we chose privatization of public space that
happens all around Budapest. In conversation,
through our own experiences with student protests
and loosing art spaces, we joked about occupation
as a mean of intervention in the student gallery- first
version of our project was to arrange five different
exhibitions in which each member of the group
would, through their design, occupy the space in the
name of a company or a brand. The space would
function as a restaurant, shop, office with inventory,
design and function. Visitors would be able to buy a
mock product which would convey a message in
which they would be informed about the privatiza-
tion of art and art spaces. Upon that first idea, we
went to something evem more abstract, more surre-
al in terms of privatization.