Közös Városok
Shared Cities: Creative Momentum is a European cultural platform that explores the contemporary communal and urban challenges of city life. As a result of international cooperation between 11 partners from six different countries, numerous studies, events, and programmes are organised between 2016 and 2019. The project is realised with the support of the European Union's Creative Europe programme, with domestic partners including the Contemporary Architecture Centre and Mindspace. KÉK participates in the Shared Cities programmes with two projects: the Budapest100 festival, held every spring since 2011, and the newly launched Csepel Works project.
Budapest100: within the framework of Shared Cities, our annual festival will be expanded with a new element, with the theme and location in 2017 being the Budapest embankment. This year, we are organising joint professional programmes with institutions operating along the embankment, aiming to highlight the role of these institutions in the life of the surrounding neighbourhoods and to involve them in the joint consideration of the embankment's future. In the long term, the programme aims for institutions, companies, and other local stakeholders to play a more active role in shaping the city's life. KÉK provides support, consultation, and organisational assistance during the project. The expanded professional programmes will take place on the weekdays following the Budapest100 weekend and the closing events on the following weekend.
Csepel Works: another project launched with the support of Shared Cities is a professional workshop and lecture series aimed at exploring and discussing, with involved local partners, the shared development opportunities and development models of the hundreds of companies and enterprises operating in the former Csepel Works area following privatisation. The project primarily examines whether it's possible to create a unified image and branding strategy with the participating companies that, based on the historical legacy of Csepel Works, supports the long-term, mutually reinforcing, innovative development of the companies operating here. As part of the project, we will address the cultural and architectural heritage of Csepel Works from a new perspective, handling economic development, heritage protection, and urban development together, to be showcased in an exhibition in the first half of 2018.
The Csepel Works area, with its vast history and heritage, hosts hundreds of companies of varying sizes and profiles. Its riverside location and proximity to the city centre, and the ongoing and planned developments in Budapest, make it increasingly valuable. Nevertheless, it remains one of the capital's forgotten areas, both for city dwellers and urban developers.
The Csepel Open Factories Weekend is a two-day programme (29-30 June 2019) that aims to give visitors insight into the daily life of Csepel Works, the operations of the companies here, and stir interest in the historical and cultural heritage of the Works, its services, and the potential within the area.
The programmes were developed jointly with companies active within the Works area and invited cultural stakeholders from Budapest. We organised historical walks, exciting factory and plant visits, screenings, photo exhibitions, music and sports events, and interactive story collection.
Shared Cities: Creative Momentum partners: Goethe-Institut (DE), Czech Centres (CZ), reSITE (CZ), Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (SK), Association of Belgrade Architects (RS), Katowice City of Gardens (PL), KÉK Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre (HU), KUNSTrePUBLIK (DE), Mindspace (HU), Old Market Hall Alliance (SK), Res Publica – Cities Magazine (PL)
