The colorful face of Budapest: the whole city is full of more and more wonderful murals – Photos
Budapest undoubtedly ranks among the leaders in the world in terms of gigantic wall paintings and murals.
Mural painting as an art is almost as old as man: people scratched, carved, etched and painted them to record the activities of their people, from scenes of hunting, gathering and family life to religious and funerary events. When we talk about street art or urban art, we immediately think of graffiti on the walls of public spaces, Banksy’s satirical street art, various outdoor installations, but we also include gigantic murals and murals. Although these are related genres, they differ in many ways, the most common being the enjoyment value. What they have in common, however, is that these works – just like ancient wall paintings – are means of communication, attention-grabbing, self-expression, which in most cases represent cultural and social values and ideas.
In many cases, the essence of modern wall painting is that the works reflect on the events of today, and much more, among other things: they provide a cultural and visual experience with their colors or what they have to say. These works of art painted on the wall can be inside or outside the building, and they represent a separate category in the diverse artistic trends of urban art not only because their painting requires artistic expertise, but also because the work usually includes the architecture of the building, so that the painting and creates the building as one.
These great works are becoming more and more common in our country, many murals decorate the capital, and a significant part of the masterpieces is the merit of the first organization dealing with wall painting and public space coloring in Hungary, the Színes Város Group. We have selected a few of their works to tell and show you the 5 things that make us love this genre so much.
They fill the grayest neighborhoods with color and life
An excellent example of this is the painting done at the BAH junction, which was done as part of the Colorful City Budapest Festival in the capital in the summer of 2015. The wall coloring project series consisted of a total of 13 works, completed with the participation of Hungarian and foreign artists. The goal of the festival was to make our capital city more and more colorful, cheerful and livable for the residents and visitors. The work promoting Lake Balaton became a real color spot for the busy intersection, which everyone has been looking forward to ever since, waiting for the green light.
Image: Noizz.hu
(BAH junction – Colorful City Festival)
They take you to another world
There are also wall paintings that are not made for the man in the street, but for a community. These can be schools, kindergartens, offices, apartment buildings, various institutions. Their purpose is primarily to fill up and move the audience out of monotony. An example of this is the recent painting inspired by nature on the internal firewall of Universo. The client Cordia approached the Colorful City with the aim of solving the closed feeling of the inner courtyard for the residents with a creation that evokes a natural, green environment. However, with regard to the colors and graphics, it was important that the extremely sunny inner courtyard did not lose its brightness, and that the walls retain their light-reflecting ability. This is how this creation with the atmosphere of a summer meadow was born, which completely changed the atmosphere of the courtyard of the apartment building.
Image: Noizz.hu
(Balázs Béla utca 24. – Universo by Cordia)
They work on socially important topics
To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? The last two years have been about the COVID epidemic. It shook the economy and society to its foundations all over the world. However, there can be no doubt about one thing, the vaccine developed by the virus saved millions of lives again. The huge mural pays tribute to Katalin Karikó, the developer of the technology behind the mRNA-based coronavirus vaccines, and it was created by the City of Color on behalf of Brain Bar, on the eve of the “future festival” held at Millenáris last year. Next to Katalin Karikó’s portrait is the slogan “The future is written by Hungarians”, which expresses the purpose of Brain Bar, which is to strengthen the ambitions of young Hungarians and encourage them to actively shape the future.
Image: Noizz.hu
(Katalin Karikó – Krisztina körút 30.)
Politics, expression of opinion, a little different
Art is self-expression, with the help of which we can articulate those feelings and thoughts, which we might otherwise find difficult to do. And in a crisis situation like a war, art is one of the most liberating tools with which we can give a “voice” to our anxiety. It is not by chance that the war in Ukraine moved the art world so much. Countless works have been created all over the world to express concern, compassion and criticism of world politics. It was originally designed by British artist Luke Embden in 2014 and is one of the most famous murals in the City of Color, with a huge red heart in the middle. Inscription around the heart in English “love your neighbors”. The Colorful City Group asked the creator for permission to paint the colors of the Ukrainian flag on the heart as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine.
Image: Noizz.hu
(Dob utca 40. – “Love your neighbors!”)
Heralds of our cultural heritage
Perhaps one of the most positive, complex, and dearest benefits of wall painting is that, in addition to covering monotonous, empty walls with color, in addition to their visual value, they revive the crumbs of our culture on a giant surface, rethinking or even immortalizing them. Fortunately, there are so many of these works that it is difficult to choose just one, so now we have highlighted three examples, which are not only completely different in terms of themes, but also in their implementation, but perhaps mean the same thing to most Hungarian people.
Image: Noizz.hu
(Régiposta utca 5. – Csodaszarvas)
Also in the framework of the Colorful City Budapest Festival in 2015, the painting depicting the legend of the miraculous deer was realized in one of the most frequented areas of Budapest, in Régiposta Street. According to the legend, Hunor and Magor, the sons of King Nimród (Ménrót), one day chased a beautiful deer to hunt it, but the deer was unreachable and took the brothers to more and more beautiful landscapes and richer areas, until finally they found a new land and a woman for themselves and thus began the rebuilding of the Hun empire. The Miraculous Deer is a symbol of rebirth, renewal and the Sun, a mythical guiding animal that led Hunor and Magor to the Hungarian homeland. The winning work of the festival was the painting The Miracle Deer designed by Carlos Breakone. According to the creator, he also chose the theme of the miraculous deer because of its message, as the legends built around the Hungarian folktales deserve to be introduced to visitors from abroad.
Image: Noizz.hu
(Szigony utca 8. – 1986 animated film called Catcatcher)
Grabowski, the mouse hero of the cartoon Catcatcher, is shown in the picture made in the Losonci district using more than 400 liters of colorful wall paint and two months of work. The film is an epoch-making piece of Hungarian motion picture mass culture, its legendary figures, and its catchy dialogues have become a reference point for all Hungarian viewers. The design of the 600 square meter mural – inspired by the 1986 cinema poster of a popular cartoon designed by Csaba Szórádi – was created with the permission of Béla Ternovszky and his co-creators, Simon Forgács (Macskafogo.hu), @0036mark and graphic designer Illés Hajnalka. Macskafogó was not only successful here, but also in many other countries, especially in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, but Macskafogó was also liked by the residents of the Netherlands and the United States of America, where it ran under the name Cat City. Its painting fits perfectly into the long, high view of the panel houses, they add color and life to the merging gray effect. And the choice of theme makes everyone smile.
Image: Noizz.hu
(Grand Corvin 2, Leonardo da Vinci utca 42. – An excerpt from Ferenc Molnár’s novel The Pál Street Boys)
Színes Város expanded the series with another masterpiece on the firewall of the house next to Grand Corvin 2, built along Corvin Sétány. The client here was Cordia, who created the artwork to conclude an important phase of the district renewal project that lasted more than a decade. The goal in this case was to create a work that, from a cultural point of view, is not only part of VIII. district and the residents of the neighborhood, but it represents an important and defining value for visitors. Searching among artists and works related to the area, after careful consideration, the choice fell on Ferenc Molnár’s novel The Pál Street Boys and the iconic glass ball shooting scene, the location of which in the novel is the Múzeumkert belonging to Józsefváros. The work was created based on the designs of illustrator Aliz Buzás, which was selected by the client Cordia in a private competition.
Regardless of the subject, mural painting is perhaps the most recognized art form of urban art, which has a positive effect not only on the perception of the neighborhood, but also on the cityscape and the mood and well-being of the people who live there or even just pass by. We think there should be more of it, let Budapest be a colorful city!