First organized in 2014, the Photostreet Festival was initially part of the Café Budapest Contemporary Cultural Festival’s autumn programs, while this year the event is a collaboration with the Budapest Spring Festival. Providing an eclectic mix of free events for anyone interested in photography, this weekend street party offers numerous cultural programs and alluring attractions across multiple venues on downtown Budapest’s Nagymező Street and Andrássy Avenue, with events happening from the morning till the late-night hours. Events during the festival include visits to the exhibition hall at the 122-year-old Hungarian House of Photography, free tours around the 34th Hungarian Press Photo exhibition inside the Capa Center, while several shipping containers are set up outdoors along the street to feature miniature art exhibitions and interactive installations.
Alongside the open-air art exhibitions, visitors at the Hungarian House of Photography can travel back in time as they learn about the art, tricks, and technologies of taking pictures when photography was a new medium, while the Capa Center sheds light on future technologies, presenting cutting-edge cameras, equipment, and various practices of capturing modern moments. Additionally, following last year’s successful screening of Wim Wenders’s The Salt of the Earth film, this year we can see the Hungarian premiere of the documentary Mapplethorpe – Look at the Pictures, a controversial movie about the life of American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, which will be screened with original English audio and Hungarian subtitles at 5pm on Friday, and 11:30am and 4pm on Saturday. (Among all Photostreet Festival programs, these film screenings are the only events that are not free; tickets are available for the movie at the Capa Center’s cashier desk.)
Among the outdoor displays, one container will display the works of six photographers that actively capture Budapest’s urban scenes to share them with followers on social media, drawn from Instagram accounts that are favorites of the We Love Budapest editorial team. This temporary exhibition space features two images taken by each photo artist, and naturally We Love Budapest is greatly honored to cooperate with the Capa Center in portraying modern scenes of our beloved city. Other outdoor containers feature exciting displays like an exhibition by photography students of the Budapest Metropolitan University.
Additionally, throughout the entire weekend visitors can join informative guided tours, various workshops, photo-shooting sessions, inspiring talks, fascinating performances, and cheerful concerts to celebrate culture and photography. Here are some entertaining highlights:
Friday, April 22
5pm:
Mapplethorpe – Look at the Pictures screening
7pm:
Wahorn Airport improvisational concert
9pm: DanceArt performance of photography-inspired choreography Saturday, April 2311am: English-language guided tour of the Hungarian Press Photo exhibit11:30am and 4pm:
Mapplethorpe – Look at the Pictures screening
9pm:
DanceArt performance of photography-inspired choreography9pm: PHOTOparty with DJ Bootsie and VJ Manna Sunday, April 241pm:
DanceArt performance of photography-inspired choreography2pm:
English-language guided tour of the Hungarian Press Photo exhibit4pm: Réka Farkasházi and the Tintanyúl concert for children
6pm:
DanceArt performance of photography-inspired choreography Check out the official festival website for complete program information.
