At a time when the local art world is awash with rumours of impending mergers, decapitations and downsizings of public art institutions, the decision to open up a new privately-funded platform for contemporary art is a welcome move against the tide. Indeed, the fledgling art space on Vérhalom utca in the uphill, upmarket second district goes against the grain in a number of interesting ways, and is on the right track to becoming a recognised feature of the rolling landscape of the art scene.

The director with a vision is Jade Niklai, who spent her early childhood in Budapest and her teens in Australia, before eventually returning to Europe to take a degree in art history at London’s prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art. The founding of Blood Mountain Foundation brings together the threads in a creative and promising way, and is based on a mission to turn the old family villa into an innovative site for progressive experiments in contemporary art.

The core of their programme is a series of well thought out residencies that offer an opportunity to high-flying international artists to slow down and create in the conducive atmosphere of a villa on Rozsadomb. The climax of each residency is an exhibition accompanied by a series of discursive and educational events, as the public gets a chance to see the fruits of the artist in question’s encounter with the city. Pretty much everything is done in English, in keeping with the international focus and ambitions of the foundation, and visiting is by prior arrangement.

Their first resident was hot-property Cuban artist Diango Hernandez, who spent his time wandering the dusty streets of Pest picking up fragments of the socialist past. He combined found photos, odd pieces of furniture and retro light fittings as raw materials for elegant sculptural installations, collaborating with local designer of chic hats Valeria Fazekás to create the final atmospheric effect. The crowd of curious collectors and art world insiders who took a rare detour to Buda for the artist’s presentation were conscious of entering uncharted territory on the artistic map of the city.      

The latest exhibition is the fruit of the second residency at the Foundation, by an Australian artist of Albanian origin, Asim Memishi, whose work delves into the historical and cultural associations of the surrounding neighbourhood. Vérhalom utca, from which the foundation takes its name, has associations of martyrdom, burial mounds and bloody battles, while the nearby Gül Baba Tomb is a unique reminder of the Ottoman occupation and its impact on the urbanism of the city. The artist uses chalk on raw linen to represent the rough surface of uncultured land and echo the invaders efforts to survey and appropriate occupied terrain.

Blood Mountain Foundation aims to offer four artist residencies per year and in the future to expand its programme of exchanges and curatorial projects along invisible energy lines connecting the art scenes of Hungary, England and Australia.