Dreams on Wheels

A dream comes true - Danish bicycles comes to Budapest – “Dreams on Wheels”

The Royal Danish Embassy, The Danish Cultural Institute in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and various cycling organisations is presenting the cycling exhibition, “Dreams on Wheels” in response to Denmark is hosting COP15 – the UN Climate Change Summit – in December 2009. The exhibition will be on show in VAM Design Centre,Kiraly utca 26, from 4-25 September.

Dreams on Wheels is an exhibition originally created by Thomas Ugo Ermacora- and is a conceptual arena for promoting urban cycling as a viable transport alternative The exhibition is a showcase for the Danish cycling tradition, bicycle design, and urban planning, and has among other places been shown at The Danish House in Paris, harbour-front Toronto, Danish Design Centre and in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.

The intention of the exhibition is to promote cycling as an alternative form of transportation and to show how the benefits derived from it relate to important topics such as climate change, energy conservation, the environment and health. The exhibition will be on display with the title “Green Design from the Baltic Sea”. The Green Design is also part of the “Baltic Sea Festival” organized by EUNIC in September 2009.

Denmark is using bicycles the most as an integrated part of the transport system. This is partially an education effort, a result of very high car prizes, but arguably mainly the result of the development of bicycle friendly infrastructure, bi-cyclepaths along roads, independent bicycle-roads, preferential position at road-crossing etc. etc.

Budapest and Hungary as such, one might say, is not quite there. There is – arguably – still a lot to do. One really positive development is, though, that still more of the inhabitants of Budapest chose to bike. The exhibition illustrates Danish cycling culture and shows how to design infrastructure with a view to promoting cycling. Besides a comprehensive collection of photos and posters, a variety of bicycles are displayed. These range from the ordinary to the more curious kinds.

As a follow-up to the exhibition in the framework of European Mobility Week, the organizers will together with the Municipality of Budapest host a conference “KERÉK-VÁROS -TERVEZÉS KONFERENCIA” on the 21 September 2009 at Budapest Technical University. The theme of the seminar will be how to facilitate the use of bicycles through Urban Planning. An one day conference where experts in urban planning from Hungary and Denmark approaching the theme of Bicycle-friendly urban planning each their starting point. The outcome of the conference would be a number of concrete positive suggestions for what to do next in developing bicycling friendly urban planning in Budapest. During the run of the exhibition The Royal Danish Embassy and The Danish Cultural Institute will together with Cyclechic, BuBiFeszt and Skandináv Ház Alapítvány be arranging a series of cycle-related events for the public.

Calender of activities:
4 September: Biking in Budapest in partnership with BuBiFeszt and workshop in VAM. Christiania in Art and a different kind of urbanization in partnership with BuBiFeszt 
5 September: Livable Workshop at Toldi Mozi in partnership withBuBiFeszt 
19 September: Bicycle picnic arranged by Skandináv Ház Alapítvány 
21 September: 9 am-1 pm Conference at the Technical University in partnership with European Mobility Week Budapest. Title: “Urban design and traffic planning”. Participants: Mr. Miklós Hagyó, Deputy-Mayor of Budapest, Mr. László János, Chairman of MK, Danish Photographer Mikael Colville Andersen and many others.
22 September: CAR Free Day and Open Day at VAM. Biking in Budapest with the Danish Urban designer Mikael Colville Andersen on the Christiania bike

The exhibit is supported by: Municipality of Budapest, European Mobility Week, Cycling Embassy of Denmark, Magyar Kerekparosklub, Konkam Studio, The Danish Cultural Institute &Etikstudio.

Press release from Embassy of Denmark, Budapest of the 28th August 2009

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