PechaKucha daily

PechaKucha Night in Budapest organizer Attila Bujdoso sends in this story, about how funds were raised at the city’s Inspire Japan event. All photos were taken by Tóth Máté.

The sprinkling and giving of Easter eggs are flourishing traditions in Hungary, widely practiced at Easter time. According to this folk custom, on Easter Monday, in the early mornings, young men visit women and sprinkle them with cold water or perfume. In return, the women give nicely decorated Easter eggs to the men. Lately, in modern times, the hand-painted eggs are often substituted by chocolate eggs. The Easter egg became an icon of the Hungarian Easter folk custom, preparing and decorating Easter eggs show a living example and vivid presence of folk art. The history of sprinkling and giving Easter eggs can be traced back to an ancient fertility cult as well.

VPI Architects, a Budapest based young design team, has designed and produced special edition Easter eggs this year: Easter eggs made out of concrete. They paired the old tradition with a new material, and once following the tradition, all steps during the production process were made by hand. They used a special mix of concrete which gave an extra smooth surface. The concrete Easter eggs are decorated with lace strips, which evoke the traditional decoration motives of Easter eggs, but also give them an extra layer of sensuality.

The concrete Easter eggs played a central role at the recent PechaKucha Night Budapest event, which celebrated a concrete special edition. The event organizers (Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre and Bujdosó Attila) joined the Inspire Japan initiative of Tokyo-based PechaKucha founders Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham. The concrete Easter eggs were sold by auction and the income was sent as a donation for the Architecture for Humanity to support reconstruction works after the earthquake and tsunami disaster, which happened in Japan in March 2011.