Residents of Budapest are so accustomed to being surrounded by water that they often forget how extraordinary it is that we enjoy such an abundance of the life-giving liquid. With that in mind, downtown’s Mai Manó Ház museum now provides a refreshing perspective on the topic: their new exhibition, titled “1 Day in Budapest”, is about the relationship between water and the Magyar metropolis, as told by Hungarian photographers. Viewing this diversely fascinating exhibit made us want to jump into a pool or relax in a thermal bath.
The exhibited 46 pictures were taken by 17 photographers over 24 hours at various locations around Hungary’s capital on September 29th. The method of this project has been successful before – in 2003, a “1 Day in Budapest” photo series highlighted pictures from the Havanna Street housing estate, a couple kissing at Keleti Railway Station, and life inside a strip club.
This time, the museum chose the theme in accordance with the Budapest Water Summit happening during November 28-30. The exhibition is the official accompanying program of the international summit, and since the city is often called the capital of water, there are touristy still lifes and postcard-worthy Budapest moments among the photographs. However, the relaxing pensioners, the underwater legs in Széchenyi Bath, the romantic sunsets and dawns on the Danube bank, and the fishermen at the feet of Liberty Bridge are all portrayed with an unusual approach. The veteran fishermen even let us know that the Danube is clearer and there are more fish in it than ten years ago.
The lenses of the photographers guide us through iconic Budapest places like the Zoo, the fountains at Szabadság Square and Széll Kálmán Square, and people doing water sports at Római Part. Many of the artists channeled their social consciousness in the picture; for example, Ákos Stiller captured the passengers of BKK boats.
In the middle of the exhibition area there’s an installation by Gyula Sopronyi, who, referring to the less positive ways of water usage, placed a diapositive of a dead fish into an acrylic cube filled with oil. The pictures of flattened PET bottles by Dániel Kovalovszky point out the pollution of the Danube, and also the utilization of water as mineral water.
The exhibition is like taking a nostalgic journey back to summer, as everybody knows what it’s like to sweat during a heat wave on the Danube bank, just a few steps away from the water, where they can’t take a dip. In times like that we would like to sprinkle our faces with a soda siphon, like the girl in front of the Budapest bridges does in the photo-series by Éva Ágnes Molnár.
The organizers of the exhibition really let their imagination run wild; they gave space to many distant associations about the relationship between humans and water, as we can see things like an abandoned fire hydrant, kids in swimming suits, and a parched flower garden being watered. We immediately recognized the style of Éva Szombati, her picture titled Tropic Thunder portrays the backside of a naked man in an unusual interior, taking a bath with an inflatable palm tree.
According to curator András Fekete, the themes were given to the artists in advance, and they also wanted to get into wastewater treating facilities and to factory buildings, to capture the industrial utilization of water, but they didn’t get the necessary permits. Another topic that was left out was the bathing of homeless people, as on the day when the pictures were taken, no one went to bathe in the canal that comes out of Gellért Bath, which is often used for this purpose. The pictures on display don’t present the whole project, as all of the photos could not fit on the walls of Mai Manó Ház; all of the 104 photographs can be seen as a slideshow at the exhibition.
