Market halls are ubiquitous in European cities. This is where the daily rythm and routine of urban life are best revealed.
The aim of the Project Market is to call into being a series of exhibitions in Europe that present and shed light upon market halls. The project was initiated by the Ernst Museum of Budapest, with the participation of international curators, artists and architectural historians from a number of European cities like Graz, Bratislava, Prague, Zagreb, Cracow, Florence and Oulu. Owing to this international cooperation, the national character and common European elements of markets and market halls may become comparable and interpretable. It helps examine the consequences of different historic and social developments in Western and Eastern Europe as well as between individual countries of Central Europe.
For the purposes of the project, market halls are more than mere buildings: they are a social space too. Hence the exhibition will include beside architectural elements photos, videos, noises, music, digital media and texts as well. In other words: the project shows market halls as audio-visual and multi-media spaces. Since cultural anthropology, ethnography, sociology and economics are organic parts of the project, important lessons may be drawn from it.
Some kind of market halls can be found in practically all 23 districts of Budapest. Like schools, libraries and hospitals, they too are an omnipresent social space. In Budapest, the project was started by studying several market halls built in various periods and showing different architectural features. The study included the Hunyadi market and the Market Hall designed by Samu Petz on Fővám Square, both from the 19th century, Fehérvári Market from the post-war Socialist period and the modern Lehel Market Hall. Cities participating in the project are working simultaneosly on their relevant sites.
Project Market fits well into the series of exhibitions by Ernst Museum to show the venues of Budapest's cultural life and the new kind of public spaces. (The series included so far Cinemas of Budapest, Grand Café Budapest, Lajos Ernst and the Ernst Museum and Artists and Studios.)
Allan Siegel, film and video artist and curator of the exhibition, composer Tibor Szemző, media artists Beatrix Szörényi and Márta Rácz and art historian Márton Orosz all contributed to the realization of this exhibition.
Institutions participating in the project:
ERNST MÚZEUM (Budapest, Hungary)
MEDIENTURM (Graz, Austria)
GALLERY PRIESTOR FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS (Bratislava, Slovakia)
CENTRAL-EUROPEN INSITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS (Brno, Czech Republic)
PLATFORMA 9,81 (Zagreb, Croatia)
MALOPOLSKI INSTITUT KULTURY (Cracow, Poland)
ART HISTORIAN INFORMATION FROM CENTRAL EUROPE (Cracow, Poland)
DEPARTMENT OF ACHITECTURE, UNIVERSITY OF OULU (Oulu, Finland)
DIPERTIMENTO DI TECHNOLOGIE DELL'ARCHITETTURA E DESIGN "P. L. SPADOLINI" (Florence, Italy)
OLASZ KULTÚRINTÉZET (Budapest, Hungary)
FINNAGORA (Budapest, Hungary)