One day chance
My work was a 24-hour walking based on chance, alone in Budapest, starting from the geographical centre of the city.
Rules of the game: chance was generated with a dice, length of certain paths and directions were determined with the following method:
First series of throws (determination of direction):
1 - forward
2 - backwards
3 - to the right
4 - to the left
As 5 and 6 would implicitly mean vertical direction – in absence of flying and drilling instruments and because of the horizontal extension of the city – these two numbers sign the following:
5 - back (to the previous place)
6 - repetition (the last number once more)
Second series of throws (determination of distance):
1 - 6 corners (or blocks, building plots, crossroads).
In case of the appearance of an unexpected obstacle (e.g.: imprevious wall, dead end, precipice, ill-intentioned creature etc.) possibility of throwing again or running away is admissible.
I requested the Carto-Hansa Survey and Geographical Information Systems Supplier Ltd. to determine the geographical centre of the city. According to their data it turned out that the centre, the middle of Budapest is not in the inner part of the city, where we would expect it by the expression and the density of people and money, but it is located on a relatively peripheral place which is not the most frequented part of the city. This place is in a scrubland near Népliget not far from the crossroads of Kőbányai road and Könyves Kálmán boulevard. (While surveying the area and locating the point, I asked some half-naked people sunbathing near the scrub if they knew that they were basking in the heart of our beloved capital, but they just couldn’t believe it.)
The 150x150 cm canvas exhibited is just a documentation, the real work can not be seen as it was the one day walk from the centre itself. Its route was not determined by me but by chance and the distance covered is shown on the canvas. This “map” does not contain street signs or data because I didnt find particular recognition important, but the pure drawing of the city arising from its geometry and formed by chance excited me instead. In the same way, I neither wanted anyone to know about the action (that’s why I went alone). Nonetheless nobody accompanied me, still many people saw the event as there were lots of people coming my way. (For example, when good luck led me to the area of Kálvária square in the 8th district and – according to the rules of the game – I had to pass in front of a bloom for the fourth time, then she asked me if I (as ‘my luv’) wanted to, but I rejected her, yet – considering her self-respect – I told her immediately that the cause of my answer is naturally that I have to carry out my duties, when she answered that she was doing the same. So we agreed on it.) The action couldn’t be seen by anyone when happening – although it lasted for a whole day – as, of course, nobody had the idea of being the witness of the birth of an art work when I appeared.
Let’s go!
(András Wolsky)
