It’s a KUNSZT! - A Design Shop, Gallery, and Community Space We spoke with the proprietor, Andrej Tóth
Lately, the area around Óváros tér [Old Town Square] in Veszprém has sprouted exciting venues. After the Pekedli General Store, the Wine & Vinyl Bar & Store and the Füge Ice Cream Shop and Café, we are happy to introduce KUNSZT!, a place to enjoy art delicacies alongside delicious snacks. It also functions as a real community space - all in capital letters.
Andrej Tóth was born in Kaposvár and lives in Budapest. He is half Ukrainian, but his family hails from Balatonalmádi, which explains his love for Lake Balaton. He is a graphic designer who worked for the A38 ship (a cultural and event centre) on the Danube for nineteen years, created posters and magazines for the Radnóti Theatre, and teaches at MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) and METU (Budapest Metropolitan University). At Lake Balaton, he has his own brand of products, ‘Art Hekk’, carved and colourfully painted fish made of wood that are in evidence at several places around the lake. He also designed the visuals for Balatonic Tonic Water. But as he puts it, the current focus of his career is KUNSZT! whose history goes back to the Rosenberg House in Veszprém.
Two years ago, my Art Hekk project and I were invited to the Veszprém Street Music Festival. It was then that my family and I discovered the Rosenberg House, where a largely neglected and run-down Albanian bakery was operating at the time. I saw the potential of the space and immediately fell in love with the building, the shop, and the location in Old Town Square. It was all like a fairy tale
The rest is history: soon after that, the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) project launched the Street Image Development Programme, a unique and excellent initiative and opportunity, and Andrej successfully applied.
We succeeded in developing a creative concept to transform this contiguous area of about 160 square metres into a lively and liveable community space. We thought that not only the history and the past of Veszprém and the Old Town but Rosenberg House itself should receive prominence. That this had to be respected and kept in mind throughout was a critical criterion for me and my partners, i.e., the interior designers and the designers.
Why call the place 'KUNSZT!'? Does the exclamation mark symbolise anything special?
The name "KUNSZT! came to me out of the blue: it's a very likeable and communicable name, and the various messages and contents interact. 'Kunst' is a German word that means ‘art’ which became part of the Hungarian vocabulary. We have an expression for exceptional achievement: we say, "It's a kunszt". The Hungarian spelling, the capitalised name and the exclamation mark conveys the joy, freshness, and sense of wonder that we felt when we hit upon this name and how we managed to turn the space with its diverse history into a lovable community space. It also symbolises the up-to-date service we strive to give our customers in all areas of contemporary KUNSZT!, whether it's our designer products, programs or the culinary offer.
says Andrej.
One half of the shop area is set up as a brunch restaurant, which Andrej says has become the breakfast spot in Veszprém. The menu changes with the seasons and is constantly refined based on feedback from guests. KUNSZT! endeavours to source products from local suppliers and producers, offers wines from local winemakers and pampers its customers with specials and surprises. The famous KUNSZT! Benedict (with smoked salmon and avocado) already has an enthusiastic following and consumer base. This dish and the rest of the menu are regularly promoted (and commented on) on social platforms.
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The other half of the store is devoted to functioning as a design shop and creative space. Here applied art and design products of artists associated with Lake Balaton and the region are exhibited and showcased. The products are available for purchase on-site. In addition to Andrej's work and the Art Hekk collection, other designers and creators were selected in a competition jointly juried with the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 ECoC staff. Sustainability and community-building through the organisation of workshops are particularly essential criteria. The door is always open to new applicants.
KUNSZT! is a multifunctional space. It can be cleared entirely and transformed for various cultural events such as theatre evenings, book launches, press conferences or round table discussions. We have paid particular attention to this from the beginning because we want a shop that is not a fixed interior space. Tamás Berecz DLA and Edit Katók created the interior design. The renowned professional journal Octogon showcased the work they did here.
Andrej says.
Veszprém's first ever poster exhibition is currently on show in KUNSZT! and Andrej tells us they have several programmes planned for the near future. WOM Design will come in June with their unique concrete jewellery. The highly popular Zhao Zhou team workshops will continue.
We are keen to launch yoga brunches, a yoga session with breakfast. And, of course, we will soon be holding the much-anticipated Art Hekk summer-themed wood painting event. We are constantly refreshing our repertoire, trying to offer focused programmes on weekends. We will also be a special venue for the “Creative HUB Veszprém’ and the ‘Night of Cafés’. Building on the success of the poster exhibition and the accompanying workshop, we are currently working on a comprehensive and long-term creative arts project that is presently missing in the region. It’s good to see that our partnership with the VEB2023 ECoC team is working extremely well; they have been excellent hosts and partners. Despite the short time we have been working together, we have put together many programmes that will enhance and make the life of Veszprém more colourful. We will strive to continue this in the future with the necessary momentum and added value.
When I asked Andrej who the target audiences of KUNSZT! were, he mentioned university students, families with three children, adding that many teenagers and school-age children also come to KUNSZT!. Senior retired people join them for tea sessions.
We see that we have a balance of younger and older age groups. We are pleased about this because it reinforces the family atmosphere, and that was one of our goals from the very beginning. Only in this atmosphere and with this mission can I personally take responsibility and build the future of KUNSZT! Seeing what we have achieved so far, I think it’s working.
