Market halls: Unlimited shelf life

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)
2005. December 1. - 2006. January 1.

Ernst Museum

Tickets
2005. November 8. - December 3.
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Exhibition of Anna Makovecz

2005. December 6. - December 31.
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Maybe – Péter Márkus and László Gyula Perger’s exhibition