Bump into art in bikinis

What are your connections to Balaton?

I've spent every summer in Tihany since I was born. We had a bungalow in Sajkod then we moved our usual summer home to Gödrös. My childhood's summer stories are mostly Tihany related. When I was learning how to ride the bike, I fell into a field full of nettles near Sajkod, I learnt to swim here and I fell in love near Balaton for the first time.

Is Balaton a fix place in your life?

Definitely it is. This is the closest place to my heart in Hungary. I live in Budapest, but I moved a lot inside the city. My heart skips a beat every time when I see Tihany from the plane. I would name Tihany as my base, because I stay there from June until September. The Hungarian Squash Association was founded at the end of the 80's in Club Tihany. My father was founding chairman, and I was a junior player there. At that time it was the only one sports center capable of hosting squash competitions, so I spent a lot of time in Tihany. Nowadays, Balaton is more of a summer experience; our summer home is not winter-proof. We would like to change that, because we're planning to move there when our schedules will be a bit slower.

According to the current dbo opinion Balaton had its golden era during Kádár's regime which was followed by a short setback in the 90's, but in recent years the tide has turned. Where do you stand on this?

I can see the progress, and ARTplacc Festival wants to boost this process. I agree that Tihany and the other towns of Balaton had a sparkling cultural life in the 80's. I didn't like to go to Balaton in high school, because there was nothing else to do besides hanging out on the beach. I'm quite envious as a mother nowadays, because I can see the buzz growing day by day. Earlier, we couldn't take out our foreign guests out, because apart from a few exceptions there were only lame clubs and lame restaurants. But nowadays Balaton lives up to good standards, and you can easily spend three months there without missing the life in Budapest. Actually, we want to build up ARTplacc, because contemporary art is what we are missing from Budapest. We would like to offer an informal cultural experience to our visitors with introducing a new rhythm to Tihany's summer life.

Has the dbo already recognized this positive change or do Hungarians have to rediscover Balaton?

I think Balaton has already been rediscovered. Many Hungarians have been to Croatia, Italy, France and Spain; so they have certain experiences about different seashores. Budapest is picking up a real urban pace, and Balaton is following this pattern, too. For many years I didn't find anything interesting in Balatonfüred, but this has changed, the city has improved a lot. My impression is that Siófok still wants to conform to standards for the average tourist, but these standards seem to be a bit undercalculated. It is always a question whether we want to satisfy mass tourism, or the layer that wants to find the same quality restaurant and wine bar in Budapest and at Balaton both.

Is ARTplacc set in Tihany due to your personal connections to the place?

The festival wasn't my idea. Ákos Peleskey the owner of Mono Galéria in Budapest has been part of the Hungarian contemporary art scene for a long time. He has ties to Tihany as well: he runs Tihany Piac Placc, the town's farmer market and popular meeting point every Saturday which brings fresh air to the locals. Tihany was a quite obvious choice though. The Hungarian University of Fine Arts has its summer art colony in Tihany, and every Hungarian fine artist has been here at least once. Other artists, like writers, poets, and actors have also been known to spend summers here. Everyone has their connections to Tihany. This town is more like a brand now.

Does Artplacc want to be a gathering for the contemporary artists or a gathering for the audience?

For the audience. We don't want to wear the image of some kind of cold, distant and unfriendly gallery. Our visitors wear their bikinis when they bump into art, so there's no distance between the artist and them. We want to show contemporary art to those who have no idea which Hungarian artist was at the Venice Biennale, in order to prove that this kind of art can be funny, amusing and interesting, it's not some kind of weird secret locked inside an ivory tower. Kikötőplacc near the port of Tihany will present video art installations, there will be a lounge for those who want to read a book. Theatre, cinema, music (concerts, DJs and VJs) will take the stage in the evening.

What are your plans about ARTplacc?

The festival will celebrate its 3rd birthday this year. We are planning to invite galleries from abroad, we want to see more programs with the artists' contribution: for example a visit to the contemporary artists near Balaton attached to a visit to the wine cellars. We would love to see visitors from all across the country, not only from Budapest. We want to make ARTplacc a Central-Eastern-European casual "summer art" festival. It could be a good chance for the university students, the galleries and the art institutions to meet.

Let's head back a bit to the personal side. What do you like to do around Balaton?

I'm sure it's not just me, but I automatically feel more relaxed when I arrive to Balaton. I love to kayak around Tihanyi-félsziget. I use happily the bicycle roads. I had an awful fall when I rode around Balaton for the first time 10 years ago, because there were not many quality bike roads back then. These are my two favourite activities besides swimming, because they help me to calm down and relax. There are many options for hiking as well.

Do you look for other cultural experiences as well?

We often go to Veszprém if we are hungry for a theatre play or a good concert, but there are cute open air cinemas as well. I often visit Vaszary Villa's exhibitions in Balatonfüred, and I'm glad that Tihany's open air stage (named after a legendary Balaton lover Hungarian actor who passed away a few years ago: István Bujtor) offers good plays for children as well.

What can you do in fall or in winter?