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Wednesday, 26 September 2007 | Levent OZLER
Month of Architecture
The Tomorrow of Yesterday - this is the title of the Month of Architecture Festival, to be organized for the fifth time in Hungary, beginning once again on October 1, the World Architecture Day and lasting until October 31. 170 events will be held at 65 locations in 15 towns, including Budapest: on an average day 5-6 programmes will be devoted to architecture. The Festival celebrates creativity, productive action and construction focusing on creative humans, the heroes of a profession that battles all kinds of physical and intellectual destruction by imagination, planning and building.
This year the Festival Centre of the Month of Architecture - 2007 will be located in the Körzőgyár Gallery (Budapest, 5th district, Molnár u. 35.). The exhibition halls will house the building concepts and plans of an un-built Hungary entitled IF!!. Unrealized ideas that could have made a street, the bank of the Danube, the cityscape different not only in Budapest but in other corners of the country. The four-day exhibition of the Design Saloon held between October 10 and 14 in the Hungarian Telecom Headquarters will again feature the encounter of luxury design and architecture. The end of October will see a Japanese intellectual invasion of Budapest: three prominent Japanese start architects who play a key role in shaping the architectural thinking in the world accepted our invitation to the closing conference of the Festival. Kengo Kuma's example and name have become recently known in Hungary in connection with the Government Quarter tender. His nature-based thinking will be even more penetrated through the lectures of his master, Hiroshi Hara and his contemporary, Riken Yamamoto. In addition to the usual programmes of the Month of Architecture - 2007, including exhibition opening ceremonies, film screenings, visits to buildings, roundtable discussions and conferences there will be piquant and rich events for everybody this year such as bathing tours in Budapest where visitors can meet architects in bathing suits, bicycle tours to provincial castles and the fantastic closing party held on the boat A38 with the participation of a famous foreign star dj.
The Month of Architecture Festival was launched by OCTOGON architecture&design magazine in 2003 with the aim of finally establishing a feast and series of events for architecture, a cultural genre directly influencing our lives, to supplement the Month of Theatre, the Festive Book Week, the Film Week or the Month of Photography. The objective of the Festival events is to bring architecture closer to people, enabling them to conduct dialogues, debates and take part in active and passive information flows. With a few exceptions entry to the events is free of charge for the audience.
Similarly to last year there will be a Festival Centre again in Körzőgyár Gallery in Budapest, opened in 2006 in the framework of the Month of Architecture. Located in the heart of downtown Budapest at Molnár u. 35. the gallery welcomes visitors with a series of diverse events all through the month.
What else is needed? "THE FUTURE OF TOMORROW, the present. The Month of Architecture -- 2007 promises to take stock of today. The last great economic, architectural and urban architectural boom changing the country similarly to today's boom took place in Hungary in the decades preceding World War I. An extensive bibliography and a few sensitively written novels tell us about that peculiar and controversial age, the decades of the creation of the middle class when enormous values were also accumulated. That was YESTERDAY and its TOMORROW is today for us, the contemporaries. We are in a tangible closeness to the re-creation of the middle class, the birth of a 21st century country and a modern society. Wherever we live in the country we take part in the process. The rich selection of programmes in the Month of Architecture - 2007 allows us to take a look at ourselves as contemplative and observant outsiders for a month. Based on the experience of the previous years I look forward to seeing tens of thousands of visitors and participants and wish them exciting programmes, eye-opening meetings, beautiful exhibitions to make us all recognize: the TOMORROW OF YESTERDAY is followed by the yesterday of tomorrow. Something new, something unknown today, some kind of a world to be figured out. Some kind of a future the cornerstones of which we need to place right here and now. And the impact of which may be felt not only tomorrow but also in the next centuries", said Iván András Bojár, Festival Director of the Month of Architecture.
More info: http://www.epiteszethonapja.hu
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