Fireworks by Katalin Kortmann - Bálint Katona - András Kaprinyák attempted to make the huge amount of waste generated in Budapest visible by video installations, elements of sound, smoke and taste related to the capital’s incinerator, creating the potential for breaking with the status quo. During a collateral event of the show, sociologist-chef András Kaprinyák was presenting vegan bites made from kitchen by-products, followed by a discussion on waste management and circular economy. Discussion partners were Gábor Kanozsai, Head of Department for Circular Economy at Municipal Public Services Co. Ltd, and Sámson László, Director of Waste Management and Utilization, moderated by Viktória Lay, radio program editor and reporter.

No Endpoint, the twelve-hour vigil performance of SVUNG Research Group took place at an abandoned cemetery, from sunset to sunrise. The various performative, somatic, attuning exercises provided a space to explore the collective and personal aspects of death, decay and rebirth. The vigil was a unique bodily experience of our alleged or real concerns and preconceptions, fears, losses, and new beginnings. The performative vigil was finished by a discussion on ecopsychology and climate anxiety together with Zselyke Molnos, biologist and ecopsychologist, moderated by Marietta Mogyorósy, nature relations facilitator.

MOME's Tolna Sound Garden project revealed the sounding nature of our city, hidden in everyday life. Tolna Garden is a pocket park in the Market Hall district of Budapest. The local municipality, paired with an NGO called Rév8, wanted to create a community-maintained garden open to everyone, and initiated several small interventions to involve local residents in this process, so that residents can identify with and take care of the place itself. As part of the program of SENSING THE CITY, a group of MOME students and researchers broadened the acoustic horizon of the garden with a sound microscope, sound sculptures, and an immersive soundwalk. At the end of the five-hour program a discussion took place on the role of long-term artistic experimentation and creative practices in community building with the participation of the artists and Flóra Madácsi, Rév8 project manager, moderated by Ildikó Fazekas, design culture manager. Consistent long-term presence is essential when working with communities, human or non-human. The MOME team has had several workshops and podcast recordings in the following years as well, and Tolna Garden is still open for the local community, managed by Rév8. 

Using her method Going visiting and the body as a living instrument of investigation, Nana-Francisca Schottländer and the participants of her workshop delved into the island of Népsziget in the Danube, a former industrial site which is now overgrown by forest and partially taken over by the wastewater treatment facility we visited. She was interested in exploring the various interrelations and confluences between the river-body and the human bodies and stories of the city - the wastewater and its treatment before returning the fluids to the river, the thermal water flowing into the Danube and the social aspects of its use, concepts and practices of protecting the riverbank, or whether it needs that kind of protection at all.

My own research was focusing on urban air quality related to my upcoming installation Designated Breathing Zone. During the research week I aimed to map the city for possible locations and also to learn more about air pollution levels within the city. As a method of exploration, in collaboration with Judit Szegő (Clean Action Group) we facilitated a smellwalk starting from a busy road in Budapest ending in the Gellért Hills, to activate our olfactory senses and perception, and at the same time measure pollution levels. I was interested in the smells and scents that shape the city, the stories they unfold, and the environmental or social factors, activities that determine it. We could organically experience how the presence of green areas affect the scent profile of the city, the air pollution levels and breathing quality, then discussed our encounters and the art & science aspects in an informal talk moderated by design- and art theorist Anett Mogyorósy.

Independent cultural institutions in Hungary witnessed a severe cut in funds, which affected the program of SENSING THE CITY as well in 2023. The third season presented only one project, my installation Designated Breathing Zone.

Designated Breathing Zone is a space reflecting on acute urban environmental problems. The spread of urbanization is a global phenomenon, with the loss of green spaces, road traffic and industrial activities all contributing to the deteriorating air quality of our urban spaces. Air pollution is also an acute problem in Hungary, causing the premature deaths of 13.000 people a year at national level, according to Clean Air Action Group publications, not to mention other health and environmental impacts. Recent summers have also been a suffocating illustration of the so-called heat island effect in the city, where not only the vegetation is thirsty but we ourselves as well for some greenery.

The installation, which incubates local plants, serves as a space for dialogue, drawing attention to the importance and beneficial effects of green spaces, allowing them to be experienced artistically, physically and sensorially.