Art Market Budapest

We are back from a week in Budapest, Hungary!

Our trip destination was Art Market Budapest, the biggest international contemporary art fair in Eastern Europe that highlights the work of emerging talents from Hungary and beyond. Our daughter, Daisy Braun, was invited to show her thesis work from MICA with fellow alum, Fanni Somogyi, a native of Budapest. Daisy and Fanni arrived about three weeks prior to the opening, to make work and prepare for their installation, Communal Current.

Besides making new sculptures based on her Exoskeleton series, Daisy needed to find models to wear them. Fanni helped immeasurably with translation, including for this call for models to “be a plankton.”

Marty and I landed on Tuesday, October 1, feeling lucky as rabbits but confused by the local currency, forints.

sketch by Jamie Hogan

After finding our airbnb digs, the Doodler’s Crib, we staked out a local Hungarian cafe where Daisy met us.

Our place was within walking distance of the famed Chain Bridge, where we strolled the next day, October 2. It’s the first bridge that spanned the Danube between the cities of Buda and Pest.

Budapest is full of old architecture with dizzying ornamental detail. We walked to St. Stephen’s Basilica nearby, a Roman Catholic church named in honor of Stephen, the first King of Hungary.

There’s renovation going on everywhere.

And an election coming up. Somehow politics look the same. Who’s your puppet?

Daisy headed off to prepare for the VIP opening and we ventured into the Museum of Hungarian Applied Folk Art.

Wood carvings, masks, textiles, and lots of lace filled two floors. I found this lacework in progress mind-boggling.

As we walked back to our crib, it began to rain. This proved disastrous for Daisy’s sculptures, installed in the lawn area outside the venue. Made from reed, silk, and string, the weather washed away the details of her forms.

We arrived at Millenaris Park to find her models in action despite the situation.

Daisy was disappointed that her intentions were lost, but rolled with it. Nothing could take away from the thrill of this moment.

Communal Current collaborators, Fanni Somogyi and Daisy Braun

Models wore the pieces for two hours at a time, walking under the roofed area. Here’s the shift change.

Inside, two wings of exhibition space beckoned.

Thanks to Daisy’s host, Gallery Out of Home, we scored our VIP swag, including a catalog, a book of photographs, programs, and pins.

Booths represented galleries from Hungary, Austria, Japan, Russia, UK, US, and more.

But we had the most fun watching Daisy’s sculptures outside, where the smoking crowd was gathered in numbers.

Fanni’s sculptures caught the glimmer, too.

Thursday, October 3 was sunny and Marty and I toured the city on foot.

Ornamental sculpture is everywhere you look.

Especially at the Great Synagogue, a few blocks from our crib.

We rewarded our weary selves with a stop at the Donut Library before heading to dinner, where we met up with Fanni and her father, Miklos, at his favorite restaurant. What a wonderful meal and evening with Daisy’s generous hosts! Thank you, Somogyis!

Daisy and Marty Braun, Miklos and Fanni Somogyi (who was calling us a taxi)

Friday October 4 Daisy joined us for a hearty lunch at Cafe Kor and a stroll to the Parliament, where we spotted a bride.

Back at the Art Market, we enjoyed people watching and art viewing.

Sculpture by Daisy Braun

Sculpture by Fanni Somogyi

Daisy met a pair of photographers from Vienna who were making hand-crafted collodion portraits. They made one of this sculpture.

Inside was also buzzing.

Gallery Out of Home had a booth representing photographers on behalf of Unicef.

Attila Ledenyi, Founding Director of Art Market Budapest, was often seen in the crowds.

I found this Beavis and Butthead reference amusing, and hope Rick Parker does, too.

Painting by Roman Djuranovic

I was struck by this piece, collage and paint that elegantly evokes a suspended melancholy. Wish I knew the artist.

But we kept being drawn outside. Here’s another of Fanni’s works.

Sculpture by Fanni Somogyi, titled Intangible Realities. Aluminum, steel, silica shell.

It’s clear their work shares a lively thread.

Foreground sculpture by Fanni Somogyi, titled Growing in the Current II. Steel, wax and plaster. Background sculpture by Daisy Braun. Reed, silk, string.

They discussed the commonalities of their approaches in an interview.

When the models were done, we headed back to Pest.

The taxi ride over the Chain Bridge was a delight.

On Saturday October 5 we found this fantastic mural a few blocks from our crib.

Marty and I walked to the Hungarian National Museum, where we roamed the permanent collection, a loop of galleries that chronicles the turbulent history of wars and conquests through painting, furniture, weapons, garments, tools, sculptures, etc. Say hello to Szigmond.

This is a tile oven. Drop dead amazing.

This writing desk would be way too distracting for me.

We dragged ourselves back to our place only to set out again for the VIP boat ride on the Danube. We missed the Somogyis, though. Fanni had flown back to the US to start a job.

The Parliament glowed like gold on the river.

There are eight bridges spanning the Danube, and we passed under a few including the Elizabeth Bridge.

Our boat pulled up alongside another boat, the A38 ship, a former Soviet cargo ship transformed into an entertainment center. We debarked for the Collecting Russian exhibition.

Sunday, October 6, was the last day of Art Market Budapest. Daisy joined us in the morning for a trek to Heroes Square.  We encountered this novelty along the way. Calling all cat lovers!

Do they serve cats? Or customers with cats?

For a few blocks on Andrassy Avenue, there were numerous fashion mannequins, decked out in a variety of materials.

Heroes Square is a vast plaza, marking 1000 years of Magyar history with epic monuments.

There are two museums; we chose the Museum of Fine Arts. This Romanesque Hall reopened last year after 70 years of being in ruins from bombing in 1945. It was restored to it’s glory between 2015 and 2018.

Soon enough we returned to the Art Market Budapest for the final afternoon.

All four days there was a steady stream of programming: lectures, panels, presentations. Marty and I went to Who Ate the Mona Lisa-Heroes and Myths in Fine Arts.

But it was all in Hungarian. So I sketched the moderator, Inemesit Etentuk, founder of Artlocator Magazine.

sketch by Jamie Hogan

We enjoyed the last hours of the event before Daisy de-installed the work. Much, much later, she joined us at a ruin bar, celebrating being DONE.

Monday, October 7, was our one full day of sightseeing. We walked to the fenicular and rode up to Castle Hill.

The views are so worth it.

We encountered a changing of the guards.

The royal hussars indulged photo seekers at the gate to Buda Castle.

Marty found an ornate gate he had to draw.

sketch by Marty Braun

We walked over to Matthias Church, a total confection of Neo Gothic ornament.

It’s close to the Fisherman’s Bastion that boasts amazing panoramas of the city from fairy tale turrets.

It was a spectacular day. Thank you, Budapest, Somogyis, and Daisy.

We headed back down into Pest to dine at my favorite place, Hilda.

A gorgeous atmosphere, welcoming staff, divine food and mood. Filled to the brim, we walked home, bidding farewell to the ferris wheel.

Goodbye slim elevator.

Between packing, it seemed only fitting to add a doodle on the Doodler Crib wall.

On Monday, October 8, we rose before dawn to catch a taxi to the airport. Aboard Air France, I sketched Hilda.

sketch by Jamie Hogan

So many souvenirs of Budapest to savor!

sketch by Jamie Hogan

We are grateful to the Somogyi family, Art Market Budapest, and all the sweet folks that made our trip memorable. The art, culture, food, history, and folklore of Budapest will be a rich source of inspiration for years to come!