Preparation for the Rákóczisquaring 2.0

After the autumn defibrillation of Rákóczi Square we were already pondering about the future of the Market Hall’s neighborhood and on how to open up possibilities for the revived community. As usually we exploited the cold winter days to get and think together, share visions of the Rákóczy-Horánszky Axis and enlarge our networks during some Monday night Józsefváros discussions.

As forecasted at the end of last year we dug deep into the eventuality of Rákóczi Kartel and an ever broader Rákóczi Alliance.  The first encourages the opening of small creative businesses with the help and incubation of Mindspace. The latter one would harmonize the cooperation among existing premises and newcomers.  As a first steps we mapped the unused spots around the Market Hall and checked their ownership structure.  

From this point we focused on a number of strands: we figured out the lengthy, formal procedure of property leasing from local municipality. Based on which we prepared a guideline to help interested ones in their renting processes. We met several enthusiastic tenant ‘candidates’, who could bring new life to the Quarter Hall. We worded a Kartel Manifesto to guarantee that all partners will contribute to a more vibrant cultural scene and participate in the rediscovery and celebration of the diverse local community and heritage. Public happenings will start with spring weather: market breakfasts, urban psycho wanderings, exhibitions reflecting on the 8th are just a few to begin with.

One of the most unexpected inherent of Rákóczi Squaring is that Mindspace became a real link between civils and the operator of the Market Hall. We channel interesting projects to the market environment, keeping it in the centre of interest: e.g. one is cooperation with Átváltozó Egyesület who organizes gamified market discovery and Zine-making workshop. Another is a public art project of the Estonian Institute, called ( R)estart, which will bring digital street art to the Market space created by Edward von Lõngus.

Apart from Rákóczi, we continued the Working With the City initiative together with KÉK. We are already over with several meetings which brought together citizens, institutions, researchers and volunteers to co-create programs for the Budapest100 program series, which focuses on public squares this year. The joining institutions are invited for further thematic workshops, which are shaped to their interest and needs. We aim to stimulate their good-neighbourly relations that will first debut in the first weekend of May.

And last but not least, we published ‘8oldal’, an 8 pager about 8th District, which lets locals to gain information outside the virtual reality.  It contains all magazine clichés while stretching the people’s mind about placemaking. The monthly issues are distributed in local cafés, bars and galleries.

For updates  check Mindspace’s Facebook page.