Lee Tusman

The eviction of Kaszino Collective in Budapest

In March this year (2011!), I visited Kaszino, a collective based out of the old jewish section of Budapest, Hungary in what was originally a jewish-owned Casino (thus the name). My friend Marton told me about the place so I headed over from the Artpool art library where he works. When I arrived I found the residents were in the process of being evicted, with much of their things being placed out on the street in front. I helped them remove their things as they tried to figure out what to get rid of and how to save the rest, and I shot photos between trips carrying out heavy space heaters, yurts and boxes of albums.

Throughout my trip I have visited art squats and collectives, VoKus and pirate spaces, communes and street kitchens - Some are legal, some are entirely illegal, and others are in various states of the gray zone between unauthorized and permitted. In Caszino, the residents had technically paid rent but got into trouble over use of utilities and were being kicked out. This is a loss to the community; I can’t think of many other places that would be offering yurt-building workshops (see photos below), weekly board game sessions, and experimental concerts. In addition to Caszino I visited Firehouse (not sure of the Hungarian name), located in an old fire station and now housing residents, studios, gallery, concert hall, cafe, theater, and boutique artist shops. They worked out a deal with the government to pay utilities but not rent for this huge old building. In exchange for use of the building they renovated the building inside and outside, although it was still covered in street art (not so much graff). The new right wing government wanted to evict the residents and sell the building. They asked for applications to buy the space, but the only people who offered to buy it were the current artist residents. In March, the government threatened eviction and thousands of people showed up to protest in a huge demonstration with stage set up on the street. This demonstration/massing/pressure seems to have worked and the inhabitants of Fire Storage are able to stay for now, though the future remains uncertain and when I visited many of the studios seemed to be temporarily closed (though the cafe remained open). I’ll be posting a video about Berlin’s long-running art squat Kunsthalle Tacheles soon. Stay tuned.

Firehouse