Welcome in Europe
2002

The community arts project Welcome in Europe involved Dutch citizens, Hungarians dogs, a Budapest gallery and a political event. In December 2002, Hungary was about to sign a treaty on joining the European Union in 2004. At that exact same time, we were invited to participate in a group show in the Budapest City Gallery. We felt our presence in the gallery somehow had to bear witness of this important event, which was the subject of heated debates amongst Hungarians. All of us Europeans were getting a lot of new neighbors of whom we knew next to nothing. So, what do you do when you get new neighbors? You meet!

As our modest contribution to these inevitable 'let's get acquainted' rituals currently going on in Europe, we decided to inform the average Hungarian public of the views average Dutch people hold of Hungary. We used dogs as ambassadors in the process, Hungarian dogs that had found a new home in Holland, to be precise. The dogs' stories, as told by their owners, would inadvertently tell of tacit opinions and preconceived notions about Hungarians and Hungary that would not surface so easily otherwise.

Above: Keszi - bought on the market in Keszthely

Left: Argus - bought at a dog show near Siofok

To find Dutch people with Hungarian dogs willing to participate, we distributed flyers to all vets that were listed in the Dutch Yellow Pages, numbering nearly 1400! This worked fabulously! In three months we visited thirty homes, made lots of photographs and taped nearly 100 hours of conversation. If we hadn't had a deadline, we could have made double the amount of visits.

All this work was condensed into 30 banners printed with selected conversation fragments, translated into Hungarian and illustrated with photographs of the dogs and their owners. The fragments were selected from the conversations and then transcribed verbatim. We were very keen on preserving the informal and colloquial character of the language used, as it helped to convey something of the participants' personalities, tastes and views within the limited space of 300 words per dog story. The Dutch versions of these stories can still be read here (thanks to the fantastic people of Dierennieuws.nl, who still host these stories on their site!). If only we could offer an English translation of the adventurous, hair-raising, amazing, wonderful, sad and hilarious life stories of dogs like Argus or Keszi, Steffie, Dunn, Szia, Cuki, Pajti & Lili, or Benji, Bukci, Emi, Abbi or Rajko! Hungarian versions can be had on request.

Welcome in Europe on exhibit in the Budapest Gallery