Gesta Hungarorum

Artist

anonymous

Date

from December 12th 2009 to February 10th 2010

Description

On September 2009, P4Photography’s director went to Budapest on a short business trip. After 3 days wading through vintage prints, rare books and Hungarian photographers’ exhibitions, Luís took the last afternoon off and headed to the Széchenyi Medicinal Bath. He stayed there for three hours, relaxing on the sulfurous waters supplied by thermal springs. When he left, he passed the chess players that use to sit on the benches outside the baths’ building and crossed the Kós Karoly promenade, the road that splits Varosliget Park in two, to look at the Vajdahunyad Castle and touch the pen in the Statue of the Anonymous (were Erdős and his colleagues used to meet and discuss mathematics). A few steps from the statue he noticed a 4GB memory stick on the floor that was almost completely covered with dirt. He picked it up, put it his pocket, and walked Kós Karoly until he reached Hősök tere (square). There, he took a last glance at the Millennium Monument, at the heroes (hősök) surrounding Archangel Gabriel. Gabriel did not blow his horn and it did not seem like he was going to do it anytime soon. Luis breathed a sigh of relief and entered the subway station. He took the train heading in the downtown direction, left at Deak Ferencz tér and then walked to the Central Kavehaz, in the corner of Karolyi Mihály utca and Irányi utca, where, as usual, he asked for a cappuccino. Now embedded in Central Kavehaz’s peaceful ambiance he changed the memory stick in his camera by the one he found in Varosliget. The card was full with photos and short videos, most of them clearly portraying Budapest. (…)

From the material found in that unknown photographer’s card, Luís Trindade made a video that, together with a mosaic of 40 images that I selected and sequenced, form the next exhibition to be presented at P4Photography Gallery.

text by Carlos M. Fernandes, 6 November 2009.

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To watch the Gesta Hungarorum video

Gesta Hungarorum book (soon)