EDIBLE ESTATES garden #12: BUDAPEST, Hungary
Estate owners: Szende-Lenard Family
Location: Wekerletelep, Pest, Budapest, Hungary
Commissioned by: Blood Mountain Foundation
Cooperation with: Wekerlei Kertbarát kor (Wekerle Garden Circle), Átalakuló Wekerle (Transition Wekerle)
With a grant from: The Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
Plant hardiness zone:
Established: June 3, 2012
Garden exposure: northeast
Size of garden: 20.3m x 5.8m
What do we do with the cities, neighborhoods, streets, yards, and homes we have inherited from previous generations? That has been one of the primary questions behind the series of Edible Estates projects. Unlike the utopian dream of starting over, these projects look at how to use what we already have, but in a more thoughtful, productive, and even playful way. This line of inquiry will become even more significant by taking on a highly charged and significant utopian planned community from the early 20th century with edition #12 in Budapest. Wekerletelep in Pest was constructed between 1908-1950 to welcome rural farmers seeking work in the city. Inspired by Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City, a variety of housing types were given access to visible outdoor spaces where residents could cultivate the land according to their local traditions and grow food in the middle of the city to feed their family and neighbors. Today the neighborhood feels like an old dream, a hybrid of rural and urban village, where the open spaces designed for urban farming have been neglected and remain untended. We conducted an open call in the community and found a local family with whom we will plan and a plant an edible garden for today. One plot for one family will be evidence of the original vision for the neighborhood, while suggesting alternate possibilities for the rest of the city.
After the planting of the Budapest Edible Estate garden over the weekend of June 2 - 3, the real work begins. Exhibition, video, website, poster, brochure, workshops, photographs, written word, will collectively circle around this modest domestic garden, raising it up as a model for local residents to consider.
OPEN CALL
OPEN CALL FOR GARDENERS IN WEKERLETELEP, PEST: We are looking for a family with land out their door for Edible Estate #12
We will replace a highly visible vacant piece of land in front of a home with a diverse bountiful organic garden that will feed the family that lives there, in the original tradition of WekerleTelep. American artist Fritz Haeg will work with the selected family to design a new edible garden on the land in front of their house, to be planted over the weekend of June 2nd - 3rd with neighbors and volunteers. All costs associated with establishing the garden for the first season will be covered.
We are looking for:
Family(ies) who...
- plan to stay in the house of the long term, and would be committed to maintaining the garden
- include at least one avid and knowledgeable gardener who is enthusiastic about the project
- are eager to share their gardening stories with neighbors, and in a video and written journal or blog during the first season
….with a front yard that is:
- very visible from the street
- owned by the family
- has good sun exposure, ideally facing south/southwest
- vacant and open
To apply, please send an email to info(at)bloodmountain(dot)org with a short statement about why you would be interested, along with a few images of your front yard, by April 30th. (poster PDF)
CREDITS
Commissioned by
Blood Mountain Foundation
Curated by
Jade Niklai and Tom Sloan
With support from
The Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
Photography by
Andras Kare
Video by
Réka Pigniczky, 56 Films
Graphic design by
David Barath
Garden consulting, sourcing and maintaining
Tamas Koltai, Green Fortune Hungary
Volunteer gardeners
David Barath
Special thanks to
Artemesia Landscape (Kristin Faurest), Wekerle Garden Circle, Transition Wekerle (Tracey Wheatley)
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