Description
Our project primarily aims to help the understanding and mitigation of problems arising from poverty and inequalities. Since the vast majority of former inhabitants of Dzsumbuj are Roma people, the project particularly reflects on the current situation of Roma people in Hungary and more generally on the situation of those who live in slums with very low standards and and who are forced to leave their homes. Dzsumbuj is not a unique phenomenon: all around the country and in every city there are marginalized people living on the periphery under Dzsumbuj-like circumstances. Our action aims to strengthen tolerance, multicultural understanding and social inclusion through the interactive and interdisciplinary presentation of Dzsumbuj. Our goal is to make visible the lives and stories of the former inhabitants – currently living in the outskirts of Budapest – on the empty site in the 9th district, within the frameworks of a site-specific action. Through the action in the original urban space, through online interfaces (a blog and a website containing the digital archive) and through an offline issue about the action, we would like to reach the local community as well as a broader audience of the city. It’s particularly important to us to involve school groups in our action to make them aware of the social inequalities and injustice of their environment. Artopolis Association will contribute with critical urbanists and sociologists in the researching phase of the project.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project is to present the history of a former slum district (Dzsumbuj), demolished between 2005-2014, and the life of its ex-habitants from their own point of view, not from an external and very often stigmatizing point of view. The Association and its collaborators intend to help the majority society to get acquainted with the history of those who live in deep poverty and got crowd out from cities, with their social background and their motivations, in order to strengthen the acceptance and tolerance towards them, and – on a longer term – to contribute to reducing racism. The results of the memory studies made with the involvement of the former habitants are to be published in a continually expanding digital archive. An artistic-community event series happening during 2 consecutive weekends will hopefully be organised in the close future. More: avarosperemen.hu facebook.com/avarosperemen
Summary of bilateral results