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Annual camp and community
Date: 2018 – (once a year in the summer)
Locations: Bazsi, Szentbékkálla, Berva-völgy, Budapest
Babel is an experiment. Can a relatively small group of people create an environment which is built on unconditional knowledge exchange, division of labour and social responsibility towards the community? The first camp, in the summer of 2018, was brought to existence because Luca Petrányi and Solymár Fanni felt a deficiency of knowledge exchange in our lives. In our contemporary world affected by globalisation and mediatization we believe that the solidarity attitude of knowledge sharing should be rediscovered and practised. We are convinced that the redefinition of what knowledge is and the search for the foundation of communal life form are important challenges. Throughout the years the participants of Babel created a horizontal community which is continuously searching for grass root development, communalism, and sharing of expertise. The members of the collective are mainly visual or performance artists, or cultural workers who have a history of participation in civic initiatives. During the annual gathering the participants organise their own programme (workshops, roundtable discussions, lectures) all reflecting on current pressing issues, often inviting relevant speakers and performers. Collaboration and sharing are the basis of the operational model when curating the camp’s programme. Performativity and creativity are in the forefront of action and perception at Babel. Each year a central theme is chosen which serves as a basis of the discussions of political, social and cultural issues with an overall incentive to create an utopian parallel reality striving for the ‘ideal form of existence’ and to encourage alternative community building.
Bábel's main concern is to create a community existence whose tools are determined by the community itself. During the week-long summer gatherings, several motifs emerged that highlighted the difficulties of community forms of functioning. In response to this, there is also a year-long discussion on ways of overcoming these difficulties, or at least of acquiring more serious knowledge. In practice, this takes the form of learning circles, clubs and programmes throughout the year.
Bábel's main long-term goal is to build a network of participants covering a wide spectrum of artistic and human fields, helping to create a common future outside formal institutional frameworks, based on collaboration and solidarity, and providing a space and community for the new generation.
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