Thanks for the compliment, and from what it sounds like you might be interested in the theme of the piece!
All the sticks are driftwood from the river. Some formed the "river" others were used for the boats and still other ones are serving as supports. All the pottery shards from the opposite bank past the Basilica and only available during the times when the river is low. Only the wire, paper, a few screws, and the salt are added. The salt serves as a screen for a video projected down from the boat hanging above it. It shows a looping video of the boats floating in the Danube for real.
So this is the studio, it's huge I think you'll be able to write in it. ;)
I was almost finished with it when I went up the ramp on the Instagram side instead of the steps. There was a poem dedicating the beginning of the construction of the bridge. It's an English, Slovak, and Hungarian. The first line of the poem is "gather the ruins". Which came as a bit of a shock because that's exactly what I freaking did for two months. The text is hiding in the back because any time text is present in visual art people's eyes spend more time on the text than anything else. I love using text but I either hide it make it self referential or 3-D.
I made another piece on translucent paper that has a poem about shepherd who crossed the Danube and calls to others from afar. I did rubbings of individual letters from Estergom gravestones on one side of the paper and some letters from the Štúrovo one on the other. The poem can be read by holding it up to the light. The letter stand for people separated by literally a piece of paper. I haven't been able to find it since the show, so if you find it while you are here please let me know. Which reminds me- the cemeteries on this side of the river are incredibly informative and poetic. I highly recommend visiting both of them.
Mass grave of Russian soldiers from WWII
The Estergom one is bigger than it looks and on a hillside and is also scenic.
Make sure you ask Karol about his family's history here, and how people called to each other from across the river because the water carries the sound. By the way there is a bridge one town south it's much smaller and you can tell it used to be a crossing. It was closed during the entire communist era.
I recommend contacting Adriana Gore, she teaches English at the Hungarian speaking high school, and she has taken me places like her organic family farm, a wine festival, The culture house, a huge mansion that's also a vineyard, all places I probably wouldn't have known about or figured out how to get there on my own.
I spoke to her classes at the high school as my "duty". It was really fun so I went back several more times. I'm actually supposed to go one more time still. I had a small group of her kids come and do printmaking with me at the residence. We made art in bottles to send down the river. I'll send you her contact info.
Gyuri will take you to Tesco (yay!) - also on the other side of the river, which is a great place to stock up on lots of things like mailing supplies etc. not just groceries. He knows about all the cultural festivals and stuff going on in the immediate area. He and Sophie have this amazing garden plot near their apartment building which is incredibly relaxing.
Many intriguing things around Estergom also- cool restaurants, older architecture, and interesting shopping. There's an outdoor market from 7 AM to 12 PM Wednesdays and Fridays. There's also some kind of other market in the evening with more homemade foods, but I haven't figured out where it is.
I'm finding out some of the best stuff right now like the homemade gourmet lemonade place over there I wish I would've known about it day one!
Oh and at the top of the mountain across the river is an abandoned church as the base of a decrepit 12 stations of the cross with a mysterious chapel at the top that is been signed hundreds maybe a thousand times with pencil for at least 120 years. There's also brightly colored statuary of Jesus on the crucifix, Mary, saints etc. This isolated almost creepy location at the top of the mountain feels like 1,000,000 miles away from civilization. The steeple is cockamamie and bound to fall in on itself soon.
If we have time we'll talk at The Green Pub, delightfully & conveniently located across the street. Have a good trip!