New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Project category

Identify the award category for which this project is being submitted
Regaining a sense of belonging

Email user
orsolyolah@gmail.com

Basic information
Project title
ArtBrunch

Full Project Title
„In the begginning there was the garden”_ArtBrunch_Botanical Garden in Budapest

Please provide a short, catchy description of your project to be used in communication towards the public.
Art exhibitions in ELTE Botanical Garden (first in 21.06.11-04.12 and the second in 22.23.04-31.05) The main goal for our newly founded initiative was to make
visual arts easily accessible but also more experiental to a wider, generic audience by creating a location specific, innovative exhibition which had been put into a vegetal frame that takes the observer by surprise. This way the audience can free their minds and break away from the common exibitional spaces of art galleries and museums.

What was the geographical scope of your project?
Local

Where was your project implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Hungary

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Budapest

Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your project benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your project won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Is your project fully completed
Yes

Please indicate a date (mm/yy)
2022-05-31

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As an individual in partnership with other persons
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project).
- First name: Orsolya
  Last name: Olah
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Hungary
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Péterfy Sándor str.9.
  Town: Budapest
  Postal code: 1076
  Country: Hungary
  Direct Tel: +36 30 514 1422
  E-mail: orsolyolah@gmail.com
  Website: https://www.orsolyaolah.com/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
{Empty}

In case my project is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my project in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites

Description of the project
Please provide a summary of your project.
Artbrunch are a two piece Arts collective consist of Eszter Kavalecz designer and Orsolya Oláh artist, curator and art educator, who’s first debut exhibition took place in the botanical garden of the University of Loránd Eötvös back in 2021. The main goal for our newly founded initiative was to make visual arts easily accessible but also more experiental to a wider, generic audience by creating a location specific, innovative exhibition which had been put into a vegetal frame that takes the
observer by surprise. This way the audience can free their minds and break away from the common exibitional spaces of art galleries and museums.

Elte’s 250 year old Botanical Garden which’s just celebrated its anniversary has a vareity of programs with permanent opening hours throughout the year, still its regional relevance - is sadly - little known. Since the closeness of nature greatly effects and relaxes the human mind – especially after Covid 19 hit – we wanted urbaners of all-ages to come and reconnect with nature and to realise the importance of our ancestorial needs whilst paralelly experiencing a visual nudge. We installed art objects on the glass walls of greenhouses and also decorated the open bushy tree covered gardens and areas. Conceptually it is essential for us that nature and visual arts aid each other in multidisciplinary ways. The exhibition was divided into two seperate events – the first in 2021.06.11-04.12 and the second in 2022.23.04-31.05 - where 16 contemporary artist presented their utopistic and distopic themed works, in belief that it could spark a meaningful discourse about the fragile essence of our ecosphere. The idea for the name „In the begginning there was the garden” comes from an identical title of a novel written by Anna Lesznai who was a renknowned hungarian female novelist.

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words.
Nature

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Visual Arts

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Biodiversity

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Ecosystem

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Urbanistics

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
We wanted to create an exemplary project where arts and green scenery entwines and coexist as one. As human beings we struggle to find our place on earth. The endless search to find meaning in life will remain a mystery for now, but in the long run we’ll have to relearn how to value green life and reconnect with what is programmed in our genes from the get go. We need nature more than it needs us. A harsh statement, but as of many past instances proven it: inevitably true. In this period of antromoprh existence we offer both a personal and a public experience. The location of the botanical garden of the VIII district signified an utter priority for us. It is surrounded by diverse generations of people from different walks of life who can share a common ground through uniting in a space where
arts and green scenery meets. We examined local qualities in order to assess where the garden lies in the city. Within it’s proximity there is a campus, are university buildings and a retirement home. Furthermore, in our opinion, residents of larger cities are more likely to aspire to look for a peaceful getaway, than countryside folks. Another major key in planning was to plant a „museum-like” attitude in our guests that concludes a lesser chance for vandalism or petty thievery. We’d love to see our initiative as a pilot of a series in the future, because we believe these events could be relocated abroad, or in any rural hungarian city in the future.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
We complemented the guarding walls of the greenhouses using art objects underneath the lush foliage. The observer is struck by the sight of paintings, installments and all-around flourishing vegetation. As we mentioned it earlier, it is really important multidiscipliniarily, that visual art is adequatly represented next to natural science. Our exibithing artist were very inspired by the wide floral collection of the garden. And indicative example is Mónika Kárándi, who’s textil works were inspired by the desert plant ’ welwitschia mirabilis’ and were installed next to it.Regarding endurance, resistance and survival this plant is king, but the artist’s way to express the lack of human connection was through neglectful completion alongside with using less material in the making. The works of Emese Benczúr warned us to spend a tranquil moment above Viktória House’s pond where the pond roses lightly float.The ambulatory feature of the given space, the quietness of the site
transformed into a meditational condition. Rita Süveges carefully placed mirrors with messages written on them: Polyculture, Dark green, Luxury of diversity in a subtropical enviroment to make to crowd contemplate a little. It bore our ’understanding glance’ just like the plant’s at the same time. Péter Mátyási at some point in time painted portrays of indigenious plants reminding us to some endangered species. Tibor Kiss meant to call attention to fact that we are only guest in this spot with his strechted out recycled foil that expresses an internal medium when the external of the greenhouse is shown through his works. As the list goes on and unfolds it is easy to see we were striving for diversity more than anything, shedding some aesthetic light on a few real-life probelms.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
We reduced the prices down to a discount fee of 1200/ Ft so guests can enjoy a visual exhibition and can visit the botanic garden too within an affordable price range. The artists, and us orginazers led professional guided tours for all ages, also extensive lectures about botanical and cultural history. Guests were able to discover and face problems reflected by our exhibiting artists. Exploring and following paths in the garden was made easy, plus we doubled up on resting areas too. With this navigating system in mind, the event could have had evolved to a whole day experience. For small families, youngsters, or even to pensioners. Stepping out of the regular canonised spaces, it was fantastic to see people’s faces relieved from the burdens of the everyday grind when happily leaving the garden, helping them to restore a little bit of lost balance in their life.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project
The project is built bridges between groups of different people. The botanical garden is located in the VIII. district of Budapest where inhabitants represent a colorful wide spectrum of society regarding race, class, and nationality. The local council also finds it important to educate and support those who live in the district, helping to catch up to Eu’s norms. Hence we made to contact with members of civil organizations and welcomed employee’s of their branch offices too, to keep professional mini lectures, botanical workshops and guided tours. Later, nearby residents and participants confirmed that they acctually felt like „filling in a silent gap” in the noisy texture of the city. The crown of vegatation served as a safe bubble where they could let go of worries.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the project. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was.
During opening hours visiting was allowed to any age group without any restrictions. Either navigating with a help of a small pocket map or you could also check out artbrunch via an online platform. There were several gudided tours, open professional conversations and workshops where previous online registration was needed for attendance. The professional lectures were kept by teachers of the Hungarian Fine Arts University, MOME, Károly Eszterházy Fine Arts University. These events encouraged students and random visitors for self-expression, learning new things and relaxation.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your project. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was.
Over the course of the exhibitions, artists examine if sustainable development would be an option for survival on earth using their creations. We covered areas of, Biology, Botany, Visaul Arts, Aesthetics, Philosophy, Music and literature. Nature and art had always been closely entwined in human history, but we seem to have forgotten how to cope with ourselves and connect with nature. Different subcultures encoutered each other to develop a movement, where you could join and listen to a lecture or choose to sit down on a bench and ponder on what’s actually in front of you. Be it an art object or a beautiful flower. Everything started out from the macro vegetal surroundings, that’s why this enchanted flora has firmly connected science and arts, holding both a visible and invisible thread in between.

Please give information on the results, outcomes and impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for. This includes also benefits from the project for direct and indirect beneficiaries
The sensation of togetherness pairing with positive physical effects had been achieved by mixing up several different scientific areas and quality materials. As a result, residents of the neighbourhood had been offered an inclusive experience. The number of visitors had reached 1500 by the end of the second part of the exhibition.In turn, the succes of these events encourge us to keep organizing, pulling in more areas with the help of the local council, civil organizations, and local schools.

Please provide documents showing the results, outcomes and impacts of your project
PDF
PDF
- pdf-1-7712.pdf
Please highlight the innovative character of the project, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the project
There are a similar bunches of initatives like ours exist abroad. It was a tradition in ancient times to scarcely place art objects in open parks for everyone to see. We only made a small twist to the this already existing genre by turning the botanic garden into a temporary shelter to spread knowledge amongst visitors about botany while beholding colorful paintings and strange installments and by doing so this duality impacted everyone vica versa. Because of the locations you could playfully float over one place to another freely without care.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your project.
We applied the empiric approach, so the visitor may learn a thing or two. All the plants and objects were highlighted by white tags. Reading these, information passed over unoticed with every glance.

Please describe which elements of your project could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and context. This may involve for example aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings etc.
Our goal within to conceptual framework was to display new artwork and ressurect already existing ones which can be pushed into the opposite direction, yet they are able to be transferred and reproduced as well as to coexist in mother nature’s contex. Learning from our experiences, there are certain criterias and conditions we’d like to meet in the future:

For instance:
 A Secured area
 Well connected transportation.(mostly because of students and small groups)
 guided artistic tour with the help of the local botanic garden representatives
 Making sure installation conditions (either with the help of the public or a contractor)

The programmes during the exhibition can be adatped to new locations
For instance:
 Gastronomic programmes, picnic
 An opening performance for (musical , theatrical etc… We are open to possibilites)
 Artistic and botanic themed workshops

Our aim is to present and recreate long forgotten values to the public. In our upcoming events we’d like to carry on with this vision in mind, in communal parks, squares even underground (metro stations for example)

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addresses by providing local solutions
We must provide a peacful state of mind in the loud, in the noisy, overcrowded enviroment of the city, where recharging and learning meets in the middle of a green oasis. The idea seem to have had a good effect on visitors both mentally and creatively. Our project puts great emphasis on how artist can inspire the public to appreciate and nourish the value of mother earth’s greatest gift that is nature. Creating a new pathway for future generations to come and maybe to put things in perspective for people lost in the lonely solitude of the buzzing cities.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images (or other types of visual representations, if images are not possible) to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
{Empty}

By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the project and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their projects, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted project, is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes