Dreams of a Sovereign Citizen – Budapest / Annotations for a City of Joy

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Public interventions: various sites, Budapest
October 24 – 27, 2017 –

In dialogue with the history of the Children’s Republic instigated by Gábor Sztehlo and forming the basis for the OFF-Biennale in Budapest, a series of annotations will be marked and written out across various streets and buildings in the city. From historical references and instructions for playing to personal memories and reflections on childhood, the annotations unfold as an expanded diagram turning the surface of the urban milieu into a creative texture for working through loss and memory, and for tracing outlines to what a city of joy might be.

Of running, and teaming up,
with rags and flags, crayons in the pocket,
and kicking stones or bottles against
and through, this or that, he shouts –
and he misses and he dreams,
falling onto the concrete ground and bringing home
the dirt of this or that tree, under the nails and in the hair,
she with mittens of yellow and racing to beat the others,
hiding and laughing, collecting matters and bugs,
lining them up for all to see, and seeing and believing
and kissing and giggling, these lines and secret paths
like a map of tender-hearted time.