Market Aesthetics
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![]() The hidden problem of unemployment and homelessness, cushioned by Hungary's former socialist system, materialised very suddenly after the economic changes in 1989. Exposure to the laws and logic of market forces led to the collapse and privatisation of many state-owned industries and companies. The consequent downsizing and redundancy of the workforce combined with rent inflation and the lack of any welfare system, to produce a very new and visible homeless problem in Hungary. The government presently funds a number of independent organizations who distribute food and provide shelter for the homeless. However, an effective welfare system is held back by local government bureaucracy and disputes between districts over who is responsible for providing support to people who are effectively urban nomads. In the spirit of enterprise which propels the system that forced them out of employment and accommodation in the first place, many homeless people have attempted to make small profits by recycling items selected from the discarded waste of Budapest's citizens. These eclectic collections of wares from super glue to broken alarm clocks are hawked in flea markets such as the one that was established at Batthyany square until it was moved last May. These markets, officially illegal in the inner city, were for the most part popular among the people and tolerated as a temporary solution by local government officials. In May, the Mayor of District 1 ordered the semi-permanent collection of homeless people to relocate their market from Batthyany square to the nearby Bem rakpart, a cycle track alongside the Danube directly opposite the parliament, to allow for some renovation work. The suggested new location shifted the market out of District 1 and onto land managed by the Budapest city government, effectively passing the problem on. Interested in making interventions outside the gallery, I made some signs consisting of generic symbols which, under the guise of objective information, might encourage people to consider the everyday realities that surround them. The sign on the glass metro wall mimics the official signs, conveying official acknowledgement, and points ambiguously towards the parliament, indicating both the shifting of location and responsibility. Perhaps the initial understanding and sympathy towards this problem is fading and Hungary is beginning to experience an official attitude concurrent with that in the West where homelessness is more established and where park benches have been removed and laws introduced to legitimize the clearing of ëvagrantsí from public places. Freeing society from the guilt of seeing the consequent and necessary bottom end of capitalism's benefits imposes a split between our perception and reality and leaves us in an unhealthy state of repression and denial. Dominic Hislop. 1996. |