BALATORIUM is an ecological and cultural program series and a science-communication project within the framework of Veszprém-Balaton 2023 - European Capital of Culture. The aim of the project is to support cultural, artistic and educational productions reflecting on the most important ecological challenges of Lake Balaton and its region, along with promoting a broader discourse on the topic.
BALATORIUM presents the main ecological challenges and processes related to Lake Balaton and its region, along with the key concepts that help to understand them, through unique cultural programmes and relevant content that are specifically reflective of the region, widely accessible and experiential, in the form of performative landscape tours, interactive public actions, exhibitions, talks, sound plays and artist-in-residence programmes. In addition, interviews, short background studies, text and video entries, infographics and toolkits are used as a result of peer research in order to raise awareness of the vulnerability of the Balaton region as an ecosystem and to promote a significant shift in public perception.
The BALATORIUM initiative is a set of programmes that are observational, interactive, long-term thinking, systemic, sustainable in scale, environmentally rigorous, sometimes experimental, but almost always educational. The ecological x cultural programme series is implemented through educational initiatives, a regional platform, an artist-in-residence programme and various artistic interventions. All BALATORIUM programmes unfolded jointly at the BALATORIUM Ecological Weekend 2022-2023.
The series of events initiated a dialogue on the ecological system and values of Lake Balaton through cultural and artistic projects; raise awareness of the ecological challenges of the region in a professionally informed way; promote long-term cooperation between scientific institutions and the cultural sector; and give an international dimension to the ecological challenges of Lake Balaton and its region and the artistic and cultural events that reflect on them.
The ecological x cultural concept that underpins the BALATORIUM programme was developed together with experts from the PAD Foundation, the VEB 2023 staff and experts from the collaborating institutions in 2020.
The aim of this "Base website" of the BALATORIUM ecological x cultural program series is to
- support the creation of cultural, artistic and educational collaborations and productions that reflect on the most important ecological challenges of Lake Balaton and its region with information,
- make complex but comprehensible background information on the highlighted topics available to those interested in the topic,
- publish open calls and opportunities of joining upcoming programs.
