Fragments exhibition

Fruzsina Nagy is one of the most unique and creative costumes designers of our times. A show where costumes took the leading role, PestiEsti was one of the last projects before the restructuring of Krétakör Theatre. Villa on Andrássy Avenue reminds the audience of those legendary buildings in Budapest that assisted through history giving place always to the country’s elite while also being a coulisse of romantic and touristic walks. The play itself was inspired by the well-known program guide of the capital, PestiEst, and the little bit lost characters were wondering in the city of capitalist miracles, while one of them wanted to rent an affordable little flat without any success. As an answer to a girl’s repeated calls for a rentable flat this costume appeared among other typical buildings of Budapest: a tenement-house that is so well-known by the residents of the capital, an absurdly tall prefabricated block of flats and one of the emerging ‘newly built’ and undistinctive condominiums. These buildings represent not only Budapest but also the history of Hungary. The new buildings are the products of the capitalist market after the change, the prefabricated blocks of flats are icons of the socialist era, the tenement houses, built before WWII represent a special mixture of the bourgeois and the working class Budapest living in the same building but in different types of flats on different floors, while the Villa on Andrássy Avenue is the imprint of the monarchy. As the oldest of these buildings, the villas witnessed all these changes in the history of Hungary. Thanks to Fruzsina Nagy’s work, this dress is not just a costume but the protagonist of the scene: an evocation of the city’s spirit. The dancing and singing buildings make a contrast with the everyday misery of finding a proper place to live. The windows of the dress-buildings comes to life due to the bluebox technique and we gain insight into the life of the tenements from whom we start to follow one’s path.