In the three-part Drifting series, we, together with Index, explored the most natural and bustling sections of the Danube banks in Budapest. Landscape architects, architects, environmentalists and local residents tell stories about the Roman shore, the Soroksári-Danube branch in Ráckeve and the Pest section of the city center.
Traffic restrictions, small-scale and large-scale interventions can work together to make the Danube touchable in several places, or even to bathe in it. As rivers have been squeezed and regulated between dams by mankind in the past two hundred years, it is from this position of defense the city’s re-close connection with the river must be reconsidered.
Is the Soroksár-Danube branch of Ráckeve a river or a lake? What bacteria and animals live in the reeds, and where exactly will the athletic (not a) stadium be?
Almost all of us have experiences or memories of Rome, at least a stray piece of history from the anecdotes of our fathers and grandmothers. In the last six years, however, we have heard more about the mobile dam, the entangled situation of privatization and the floodplain, than about the paddle-holiday, grassy family idyll. In this film, we followed family stories and how the sewage of Békásmegyer crossed this golden age. The film also reveals who the Roman Coast game leaders were, and why it is possible to build illegally there despite the construction moratorium?
Photos: Spengler László
