‘ YOU ARE NOT A TOURIST ’
A map highlighting ‘ under the surface ’ locations , to new comers and temporary residents of Budapest .
Ricardo Amelio / Jessye Curtis / Anna Dohy Luca Pintér / Anya Stewart-Maggs
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The aim of our project is to develop an alternative map of Budapest , giving light to the 8th District located off the ‘ tourist track ’, to reveal what the area has to offer , and dispute its stereotype of ‘ the district to avoid ’. We are targeting this map at Erasmus students / interns , new comers and temporary residents – as we want to encourage the integration into independent , community focused , honest spaces to make Budapest a no longer foreign place . Additionally , by spreading the word on these locations , it will bring more people , and therefore more money , into these independent spaces - so they will continue to thrive and develop the area both in reputation and in community focus and integration . We wanted to advertise spaces which integrate and benefit the 8th district as other areas of Budapest have already been gentrified and taken over for the interest of the tourist trade and big businesses . This is why our focus lies here in support positive projects and organizations .
Our project idea came from our own experience of moving to Budapest and the struggle to discover such places . There was a lack of information accessible to us , and we believe it is important for new comers to be involved in the ‘ real ’ Budapest beyond the tourist focused districts , and the typical ‘ Erasmus parties ’ that were advertised to us . As we found the district we were told to avoid ended up being the district we grew to love .
District 8 is one of the poorer districts in Budapest , heavily populated by Hungarians and Roma families . It developed its bad reputation from its high rates of prostitution , crime and drug use . After being decimated during WW2 , the buildings still remain scarred by the bullets from the Hungarian revolution in 1956 . Now due to the lower property prices – the artists and small businesses are moving in .