LIGHT THEATHER

Night of Museums at BHM Budapest Gallery

4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Costumes, Lanterns, Slide Collage
Creative Workshop for Children
Location: Courtyard and Foyer

On the Night of Museums, visitors arriving at the Budapest Gallery can participate in a shadow play starting at 5 PM. In preparation for the performance, from 4 PM onwards, everyone is welcome to join in making costumes, props, hats, lanterns, and puppets, all of which can be taken home after the show. Participants will also help design the set and background of the story by creating a projected slide collage from colorful foils, tracing paper, and thread, guided by art educators Tünde Geisbühl, Emese Váradi, and Ágnes Szabics, in the courtyard and foyer of the gallery.

5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Shadow Play
A Musical and Magical Shadow Play in the Basement of the Budapest Gallery
Location: Basement

In the gallery courtyard, participants can continuously make costumes, props, puppets, and lanterns from 4 to 6 PM. These will be used in an improvised shadow play performed in the mysterious basement of the gallery. Visitors can take on the roles of performers, puppeteers, or audience members, shaping the story as it unfolds—changing locations, guiding the characters’ journeys, and even deciding the ending.
Contributors: Andrea Lukács, actress and drama teacher; Magor Szabolcs Keresztes, percussionist.

6 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Guided Tour of the Exhibition “When We Became Strangers”
Guided tour with the curators of the exhibition “When We Became Strangers” at the Budapest Gallery.
Location: Ground Floor, Budapest Gallery
Due to the nature of the exhibition, the number of visitors is limited. Registration is required in advance: Registration Link

6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. Guided Tour of the Exhibition “Momentary Minds”
Guided tour with curator Dalma Eszter Kollár of the exhibition Momentary Minds at the Budapest Gallery.
Location: Upstairs, Budapest Gallery
Due to the nature of the exhibition, the number of visitors is limited. Registration is required in advance: Registration Link

7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Shadow Impressions / FULL
Creative Workshop for Adults
Location: Basement and foyer

From 7 PM, guests can fold and cut leporellos, three-dimensional postcards, colored foil images, and tracing paper negatives, which can be used to create their own “photograph”—a black-and-white photogram. The term photogram comes from László Moholy-Nagy, who began experimenting in the early 1920s with shaping and modulating light directly. Initially, he used two-dimensional objects, sheets of paper and glass, and gears, later experimenting with various transparent materials placed on photo paper. On the Night of Museums, visitors can try out this technique and create a light imprint of their paper creations before taking them home.
Registration required / FULL

9 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Guided Tour of the Exhibition “When We Became Strangers”
Guided tour with the curators of the exhibition When We Became Strangers at the Budapest Gallery.
Location: Ground Floor, Budapest Gallery
Due to the nature of the exhibition, the number of visitors is limited. Registration is required in advance: Registration Link

9:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. Guided Tour of the Exhibition “Momentary Minds”
Guided tour with curator Dalma Eszter Kollár of the exhibition Momentary Minds at the Budapest Gallery.
Location: Upstairs, Budapest Gallery
Due to the nature of the exhibition, the number of visitors is limited. Registration is required in advance: Registration Link

158 Lajos Street | From Slaughterhouse to Gallery

Permanent Exhibition at the Budapest Gallery
Location: Courtyard and Foyer

Óbuda’s oldest medieval house now serves as a home for contemporary art, acting as a messenger of the present — but what stories does it tell of the past? On the occasion of the Night of Museums, the gates to the mysterious cellar of this unique building will open, revealing its rich and layered history. And it’s not only the house that speaks — so does Óbuda itself: from its Celtic heritage to the present day, visitors are taken on a journey through time. Guests will be transported back to the 14th and 15th centuries, when the market square in front of the house was a bustling center of medieval Óbuda. Here, men and women, townspeople and peasants, the wealthy and the poor would gather, while next door stood the vast architectural complex of the Poor Clares, to which one of the house’s former owners was connected. Visitors will also discover the various names that winding Lajos Street bore through the centuries. The exhibition presents documentation of archaeological excavations conducted in several phases from 1969 onwards, featuring photographs and floor plans. Where did the excavations and wall studies take place? What do the Gothic doorways and window frames reveal? When and how was the building remodeled, and what parts fell victim to the demolitions of the 1970s? Beyond the building’s history, the exhibition also explores the various roles it has played over the centuries: from a medieval slaughterhouse to the Zichy family’s manorial “Brew House” after the Ottoman era. Visitors can even learn about a dispute between the noble family and a tenant. Finally, the exhibition sheds light on the 19th- and 20th-century ownership of the property — revealing a surprisingly diverse mix of shops and residences.