9 ”disasters” that happened in/to KAPTÁR
The first story is from before we opened, when we learned, that the grant we applied to finance the fit-out of the space was silently used up and closed without any notification to most of those who applied in the first place.
The second disaster came right after opening: out of the 15 people who promised to come to us, none showed up after our grand opening in the end. This left us with long-long hours and days without anyone in the space in the first year of KAPTÁR’s first year.
In the summer of 2015, there have been huge rain showers in Budapest that of course did not avoid us either. Although the water did not reach up to our waists like in the surrounding buildings, but it stood at least 30cms high in our basement. It was beautiful how our members who got stuck in KAPTÁR and our lawyer Tamás helped us bailing the water down there with any tool they found handy. We suffered serious damages and we had to disinfect then paint and furnish the whole basement afterwards.
Water damage from above: this is our favourite! When we were building the first floor in the beginning of 2016, one morning, Kati Hankovszky, who arrived already before 8am to KAPTÁR called, that water is pouring from the ceiling. Long story short, someone broke into the construction site but found nothing valuable, so they ended up breaking off a copper faucet (worth max HUF 300) leaving the place with water spraying with full power all over the slag floor. Our damage was several hundred-thousands of Forints. What we are super proud of though, is that we managed to dry the walls out with the help of industrial blowers so fast that we could reopen already the next day.
Our second water damage from above came not much later, when we had to cut large holes under the windows for the ventilation system that required diamond drillers cooled by water. After the two leaks, we had to replace the whole false ceiling that we celebrated with a complete repaint of the space.
Another story is still from 2016, is when we were organizing our 4th birthday party that was supposed to be connected with the grand opening of our new first floor space. One week before the big date, our partner supplying the glass walls called that all our newly ordered glass walls broke into pieces during loading so their delivery will be delayed. This is our guests ended up walking through invisible walls like ghosts during the opening party, which they surprisingly very much enjoyed.
Rather small “disaster” but funny our story from 2019, when we handed over our newly build Happening FIXIE space. After a few weeks, small but puzzling little ponds started to appear in the kitchenette. We seeked for the source of water in several rounds but without luck. Then there was nothing else left, we had to take apart the furniture and check the walls too. It turned out that the source of water was the drain pipe of one of our air conditioners that the fitter just left hanging in the wall without connecting it into the water outlet.
But the biggest of all our catastrophes came last year in March and we still live with it. You know what we’re referring to. For almost 8 years, we never had to close, not even for a day, then COVID forced us to do it in the end. And we wouldn’t have survived without so many of our members who supported us by keeping their memberships alive even when they couldn’t use the space. The help of our members exceeded all our expectations, for which we will be grateful forever.
And at last, the 9th story. Even if we are separated from the street front by only one door, in 9 years, nothing was stolen from KAPTÁR. Except that little, neat hand soap dish that disappeared from our washroom after an exhibition opening in 2014. Still missing it heavy heartedly
