Art Weekend Budapest will host visitors from 29 November to 1 December with events across over thirty cultural venues, including galleries, studios, and exhibition spaces.

This event, scheduled for the first weekend of Advent, offers contemporary art enthusiasts guided tours through various routes at three times daily. During these free tours, attendees will enjoy brief 15-20 minute exhibition presentations at each location, according to a statement from the organizers shared on Tuesday.

This year’s central theme, ‘movement and motion’, has led Art Weekend Budapest to join The Spider, an online community linking Europe’s major art weeks and gallery weekends. Additionally, for the first time, a regional venue, a gallery and studio from Eger, will participate in the programme, said Eszter Őry, Director of ArtNESZ, the event’s organizing agency.

Alongside the main schedule, Art Weekend Budapest will also host supplementary events: on Saturday, 30 November, the Manyi Cultural Workshop will feature a Moving Image Evening and a panel discussion, while the Képező Gallery will run educational programmes. The main exhibition will be held at the Bura Gallery, showcasing young Roma artists through a group exhibition with additional surprises in store.

‘The event series primarily aims to foster the growth and sustainability of Hungary’s visual arts sector’

The Art Weekend Budapest (AWB) festival was launched in 2023, debuting during the first weekend of December in the Hungarian capital. Through an array of exhibitions, guided tours, art walks, and discussions, the AWB provided culture enthusiasts with a comprehensive exploration of Budapest’s vibrant and diverse contemporary art scene. In its inaugural year, AWB organized a total of 58 events across 29 locations, which included exhibition openings and artist talks, alongside guided art walks along 8 routes, held three times daily (with one of these tours conducted in English). The Cross-Artour walks proved highly popular, featuring daily tours along distinct routes led by fashion designer Kinga Cakó, creative professional Ádám Kanicsár, and musician and creative expert Péter Jakab, who shared insights and reflections on the exhibitions in conversation with gallerists, curators, and artists.

The event series primarily aims to foster the growth and sustainability of Hungary’s visual arts sector, while spotlighting artists, art professionals, gallerists, and future collectors. Additionally, AWB aligns itself with the international Art Weekend movement, contributing directly to the development of European and global visual arts networks. As a sister event to Gallery Weekend Budapest, it also strengthens and embodies its values. In 2023, the Budapest AW partnered with the Ljubljana Art Weekend, where organizers from both events collaborated on projects to enhance the visual arts connection between the two cities, with plans underway to engage a further major European city’s Art Weekend organizers in the near future.

Now in its second year, Art Weekend Budapest welcomes special guests from the Vienna Art Week (VAW) team.

Further programme details are available on Art Weekend’s website.

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