The asphalt of the sidewalk, the urban pavement, forms a surface: we can write on it, draw on it, built on it, but it also conceals, covers, evens out and renders invisible. It can be worn down, lived on, or torn up. We tread it day by day, but we have no idea what it covers. It’s like the city: we think we know it, but only parts of it and only for moments, the picture always changes.

As part of Budapest 150, the series of events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Pest, Buda and Óbuda, the 1st Budapest Biennale of Contemporary Public Art will take place from 22 September to 23 October 2023 under the title SIDEWALK. The aim of the series of events in public space is to draw attention to the forgotten stories of Budapest through productions of contemporary art, to provide a new opportunity to reminisce and experience the city from a different perspective, to represent invisible communities and to build new connections. The communal character of today’s public space is a clash of desires and expectations: we often feel that it is the ‘public’ that is most excluded from public space. In order to avoid this, we need to put the city to many different uses, we need to connect with its past and shape its present. These instances of contemporary art propose ways to do this.

The one-month series of events will bring about works of public art, performances, events and encounters for shorter or longer periods of time in different locations across the capital, under the coordination of Budapest History Museum – Budapest Gallery.

On the SIDEWALK blog you can read about the background and programmes of the event on a weekly basis (in Hungarian)

The projects: