Anna Bíró, Andrea Fajgerné Dudás, Eszter Ágnes Szabó: Common Jam Map

The Common Jam project – organised by Andrea Fajger, née Dudás and Eszter Ágnes Szabó, and joined by Anna Bíró as of 2022 – has been consistently working for 10 years on the picking and processing of fruit growing in, and available from, public spaces. In the past years, they have organised several urban community harvests of public fruit trees.
Within the scope of Sidewalk, the artists will mainly be engaged in the creation of a Fruit Map of Budapest. Based on their many years of experience and with the involvement of Budapest residents, they will map and mark the trees bearing edible fruits (nuts, hazelnuts, etc.) in the public spaces of the capital using a map application. They will also check the marked trees. Moving the map – and the community – partially into virtual space is not an alienating gesture- In fact, it allows even those who cannot attend the organised events to join the project, creating a community that exists in virtual space but is centred around trees standing in physical space.
As an accompanying event of the project, the organisers are planning fruit picking and canning sessions on 1 October in collaboration with the Világszép Foundation.
An important experience the group has had with fruit picking in public space is that each year there are fewer trees to harvest from. Another interesting and instructive consequence of the project is that, although the fruits of the trees in public space are available to all, they are legally the property of the caretakers of the trees, in the case of Budapest, the municipality (FŐKERT). As in the spirit of sustainable and democratic city use, the artists would also like to plant an apple tree as the closing event of the project; they have approached the owners and managers of the trees for permission to do so. However, the regulations, protocols and standpoints on public space, especially on any kind of intervention in public space, are so contradictory – and inconsistent between the different authorities – that the location of the tree to be planted in the scope of the Sidewalk is still in question.
Although the regulations, protocols and standpoints on public space, especially on any kind of intervention in public space, are so contradictory – sometimes even inconsistent between the different authorities – an apple tree will be planted on Gellért Hill in the scope of the Sidewalk on 18 October, and will be harvestable in the future.

Photos: Balázs Kristóf

To expand the fruit tree map, go to https://commonjammap.com/ and click on the menu in the top right-hand corner.