FICTIONAL GATHERING IN REAL SQUARES

- OPENING DISCUSSION ABOUT HUNGARIAN NATIONALITY THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL RELATIONS

The research explores grassroots reconfiguration of Hungarian national identity through the physical public space as both subject and stage of participatory performance. In a country where democracy is eroded - with shrinking freedom of expression, freedom of assembly under threat, with eradicating the equality of rights —this project responds to the top-down construction and privatization of the imaginary of the nation. The project developed in Horváth Mihály tér, both representational and recreational square of the 8th district of Budapest (HU), noted history of crime and prostitution; characterized by current rehabilitation processes is still a disadvantaged area. The project examines how spatial elements—benches, cobblestones, cracks, statues —can become tools for negotiating new meanings. Two main tactics of artistic interventions unfold: (1) questioning dominant representations of space through alternative postcards creation and conversations, and (2) countering spatial practice through site-specific performative actions—visual scores of hopscotch designs and staging re-invented national celebration ceremonies. Together, they aim to build a counter-narrative of national identity from the ground up—one rooted in shared presence and embodied meaning-making.