From the 12th to the 17th of January, the 14th Budapest International Circus Festival is held, the opening of which was today a scientific and professional conference with the participation of foreign experts on circus buildings at the Museum of Fine Arts. As part of the event, an exhibition was opened in the Baroque Hall.

At the opening ceremony of the conference and exhibition entitled Circus Buildings in Europe in the Baroque Hall of the Museum of Fine Arts, Péter Fekete, Secretary of State for Culture, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Budapest International Circus Festival, highlighted that a circus pedagogy conference is also included in the festival program.

Visual design of the circus building planned next to the Western Railway Station (Photo: kormany.hu)

Peter Fekete reminded us that the circus has evolved from entertainment to art over the past centuries, while also successfully preserving its traditions. All this requires spaces: tents for traveling circuses and stone buildings for permanent circuses. These buildings are no longer standing in many parts of Europe, although it would be gratifying if these "cultural churches" could be rebuilt, he noted.

Experts from France, Britain, Bulgaria, Monaco, Canada and Hungary, who took part in Tuesday's scientific conference, reviewed all major circus buildings in Europe, still standing or even demolished, the history of the Budapest Grand Circus buildings, and the latest circus building construction trends and technologies.

A spherical model of the future circus building will also be presented at the conference (Photo: Ádám Urbán / Fővárosi Nagycirkusz)

The model related to the conference will feature a model of the National Circus Arts Center to be built in Budapest, he said. A government decision was made in February 2021 on the investment of key importance for the national economy. It will include a new circus building next to the Western Railway Station in a long-standing area, as well as an artist training school made up of an old railway hangar.

Kornél Almássy, Director of the Hungarian Museum of Architecture, praised the exhibition in the Baroque Hall of the Museum of Fine Arts during the conference, reviewing the history of Hungarian circus art and architecture with the help of numerous models, blueprints, maps and other works of art.

The artist training school will be established from an old railway hangar (Photo: Ádám Urbán / Fővárosi Nagycirkusz)

Alain Frere, founder and artistic director of the Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival, praised the renewal of the Budapest Grand Circus and welcomed the fact that representatives of the international circus world could meet in Budapest.

Source: MTI

Cover photo: Model of the circus building called Csodagömb (Photo: Zoltán Balogh / MTI)