Szobart was a temporary open studio and gallery, led by artists. It took part in Sept 2011, in Budapest Gozsdu B Garden.
Organizers: Teresa Szepes, Charlotte Schmid, Eike Harder.
1st week
BUCA-REST sign with a large piece of coal (originally from Visegrád, found by Csilla)
ARMWRESTLING at the entrance, for the entrance on the opening of the 1st exhibition. One of us (Csilla) was the right, the other was the left hand (Virág).
This performance was a game of course, but also a kind of gender experiment too. It was very interesting to observe the reactions mostly of the males. Many of them didn't wanted to play with us, because we are girls…etc.
It would be interesting to repeat this performance in different societies or cultures, for example in Germany too...
Unsuccessful emBROIDERY workshop with Eleonóra (A woman from Tordas, who is an autodidact artist and makes beautiful embroideries, but without publicity. We wanted her to come and teach us, but in the end she changed her mind and didn't come). Finally we exhibited drawings of the planned embroideries stuck on clothes, like broken line infinity sign and three teeth.
VEGETABLE SCULPTURES inTordas.
It was a travelling project of the Szobart. We went together (Matthi, Jefferson, Connor, Jannis, Csilla, Virág) and built vegetable and fruit sculptures on the Festival, where they celebrated the Ant Days. So we made small bugs with the help of the native people. On the second opening we exhibited the chutney, what Csilla made out of the fruits and vegetables. On the opening everyone was free to taste it.
2nd week
CENSORING THE CENSUS workshop. In October it will be obligatory to answer the questionnaire of the census, made by the government. We will be counters on the census. So we created an event and invited people to check the formular, and change the questions or even write new ones together. For the exhibition, we made a new questionnaire of these new questions and asked the people on the opening to fill them. Participants: Fischer Judit, Fischer Bence, Nhancale Zsuzsi, Horváth Olivér, Bartha Máté, Ferenczy Dóri, Bóra Andris.
Email-critics about censoring census workshop by István Konok (only in hungarian):
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/konok%20istv%C3%A1n%20a%20pr%20csoport%20n%C3%A9psz%C3%A1ml%C3%A1l%C3%A1s%20projektj%C3%A9r%C5%91l.jpg?w=85121e8b
STENOGRAPHY workshop with Virág's grandmother. The board, as the documentation of the lecture and two notebook and pictures of the lesson were exhibited. Participants: Fischer Judit, Esze Gabi, Popella Dóra
TURUL-FOLDING workshop with Marcsi (a very kind woman who taught us how to make these beautiful recycled-paper birds).
Invitation from Facebook: "One thousand paper turul-bird satisfies one collective wish. By re-experiencing the japan-hungarian common origins one big hungarian dream comes true. But which one?"
The Turul is the most important bird in the origin myth of Hungarians. In the past years with the strengthening of the Nationalism, newer and newer turul statues were built all over Hungary. So the quantity of the birds is growing day by day.
We mixed this fact with the Japanese tradition: if you fold one thousand crane bird, one wish comes true.
On the workshop we learned the technique (special weaving-folding technique) of Marcsi and started produce the birds.
On the opening we exhibited the finished 7-8 birds "standing" before mirrors, so they number has multiplied, increased to infinity. Participants: Follárd Barbara, Tóth Betti, Gál Zoltán Zozó
FREE SHOP is a well-known phenomena in the left-wing underground culture. You can bring clothes, electrical machines, books, etc. to the free shop, and even can take items, what you want. However there is no existing free shop in this days in Budapest, our goal was to build one, and also introduce this system to people with different backgrounds. The location, the touristy, gentrificated downtown was perfect for this.
On the second exhibition we presented a photo documentation of these actions. They were printed out in black and white, and the visitors could color them.
We finished with the concert of our girl pop trash band, STRASSZ. We introduced the newest song, called Runaway cat, which was inspired by the lost cats and the Soul Asylum.