Budapest, 23.10.2012
Performance-Intervention
Size: 500 x 350 x 350 m
Material: Foil, double sided tape, drinking bottle.
Object created during a workshop of Tools for Action together with Lena Ures and artists and activists in Budapest in collaboration with Muszi – Mu©szeti Program and Milla – One Million for Freedom of Press.
Video: 2:46
edit by Artur van Balen
On 23.10.2012 government supporters of the right conservative party Fidesz and opposition flood the streets in Budapest to commemorate the revolution against the Soviet Union in 1956. For the occasion artists and activists built a 5 meter inflatable lemon, that intervened at the pro-government demonstration of Fidesz. The object provoked violent reactions of the government supporters.
The object’s name refers to an attempt in communist times to cultivate oranges in Hungary. As the climate is not suitable for subtropical fruits the mission failed. The mission was parodied in the movie ‚ÄúA Tanu‚Äù (The Witness) of P√©ter Bacso in 1969 and became a symbol¬†for expressing the gap between the sweet party propaganda and the daily sour reality of socialist life. As the leading right-conservative party Fidesz has an orange circle as its logo, the sour ‚ÄúHungarian Orange‚Äù is now commonly associated with the party politics of Fidesz.