Patron

Art becomes a shared concern when we develop a personal connection with it. When an artwork speaks to us, raises questions, or sparks a conversation between us. This is why it is important for art to exist beyond the walls of galleries and museums: in the public spaces of our cities, in the life of our communities, and in encounters that bring new audiences closer to artists and their work. Art Market Budapest creates precisely such opportunities.

Art also gives form to the experiences of our society: our joys and tensions, our memories and hopes. An artwork can bring us closer to the lives of people we may rarely encounter in our everyday lives. It can reveal what they fear, what they aspire to, and what matters to them. The better we understand one another, the easier it becomes to recognize what we share. From this understanding, trust can grow, and trust can help us act together on the issues that concern us all.

Contemporary art also helps shape the connection between the past and the future. Artists carry our heritage forward, reinterpret our memories, and reflect on where we are heading through the questions of the present. Each generation adds its own experiences to what they have inherited from their predecessors. This is how culture remains alive, and how it can continue to be experienced as something personal and meaningful by generations to come.

I believe that Budapest can serve the future of our region as its cultural center, and that Art Market Budapest has a defining role to play in this ambition as Central and Eastern Europe’s largest international art fair and one of the region’s most vibrant cultural meeting points. Securing and sustaining Budapest’s central position requires more than our rich cultural heritage. It calls for the talent of Hungarian artists, openness, collaboration, and lasting professional relationships. This city can become a place where new ideas are welcomed, and where different experiences meet to create opportunities for working together. And young artists have a particularly important role to play in this process. They are already asking questions that previous generations never had to confront and answer. They need attention and professional trust in order to find their own voices and to contribute, through their work, to shaping our shared future.

I believe that culture can bring us closer to one another. It creates space for different experiences and opens conversations about what connects us, or about the ways in which we see the world differently. It is our shared responsibility to ensure that as many people as possible can take part in this experience.

I would like to thank all the artists, exhibitors and organizers for their dedication and work. To all visitors, I wish inspiring discoveries, engaging conversations, and experiences that are worth reflecting on and that stay with you long after you leave.