Who's that woman with the flaming hair?

I had a little talk today with one amazing lady that embodies the soul of Pop Up Art House. Maybe you already know who she is...?

If your answer was Ágnes Kaszás, then you're absolutely right! If you don't already know her (gasp) then scroll down to see how she answered my tough questions.
And you too, who already know her, scroll down. Now.

Ágnez Kaszás, co-owner of Pop Up Art House

 
• Describe yourself with five words.
A: Oh man! Seriously? Five  words? Jazz… ummm… rebelling… hyperactive, uncompromising… food.

• Which countries have you visited during the last 5 years?
A: Hungary, Finland, Sweden, USA (New York), Germany (Berlin), Austria (Vienna), England (London, Plymouth). New York definitely made the biggest impression on me, it was my second time and I worked there. I saw this awesome exhibition in Moma (Cindy Sherman) and was really inspired by it also regarding to the Pop Up Art House concept.

• How did the concept of Pop Up Art House come up?
A: It started about 2 years ago when I was already living here and was a bit homesick. I was asking around for an eclectic and crazy art places, but there was none. My friend, Laura, said to me, “stop whining, woman, and do something about it!”. So, we started to work with Laura on the concept and I went to collect some Hungarian props for it. I met Blaue Frau and together with them we realized that we could collaborate; it was meant to be! It took 1,5 years to make this place come true. For me it’s important to have a place, where it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from; here everyone can be a stranger.
Also the fact that I grew up working in my family’s restaurant impacted on the decision to create this place. My father is one of the best master chefs in Hungary and my parents had the restaurant for 20 years, 10 years of it being the best one in Hungary. My parents wanted me to continue with the business, but I rebelled, wanting to be an actor. But here I am now, basically running a restaurant, although I do it in my artistic way. My parents are now happy that I decided to continue in their footsteps in the end.

• Why is it only twice a year?
A: At the moment this is all I can handle, really.
 
• Do you have future plans for development of the place?
A: I’d like to make this place more permanent with more staff working for it; to make the concept more stable.

Now to the fun part!
Would you rather…  

… be a mermaid or a dragon?
A: (laughs) A dragon. It has more freedom and power.

… be invisible or be able to fly?
A: Oh, hard one! I’ve been thinking of that! Do I need to choose one, I love both..? Well, flying. I keep having those dreams and it seems awesome. And as I’d already prefer to be a dragon so yes, flying.

… be a dog or a cat?
A: A cat, that’s so easy! I love cats and my inner personality is a cat. I also had a cat when I was a child, and as I didn’t have any siblings the cat was kind of a sibling for me for 17 years.

… have a house in the city or the countryside (in a country of your choise)?
A: City, because I’m hyperactive and need random craziness around me.

… live in Finland or somewhere else?
A: Somewhere else (laughs). I got many wonderful things about Finland and I’m grateful for those, but the match between my personality and the Finnish lifestyle isn’t the best.

… have hiccups for the rest of your life or feel like you need to sneeze but can’t, again for the rest of your life?
A: Ummm, hiccups. I hate the feeling of needing to sneeze but not being able to.

… go back in time to 1800’s to meet your ancestors or to 2500 to meet your grand-something-children?
A: Future. I’m really interested about what’s going to happen in the future, and it would be great to see how you have impacted on it with your legacy. 

… be able to talk with animals or be fluent in every single language in the world?
A: As an idea speaking with animals would be fun, but human languages would be better from a practical point of view (laughs). 

… have all of your dreams come true with a 10% chance of instant death or be mundane and lead a boring life?
A: Of course the dreams, absolutely! Even if the chance of instant death was 50% and the boring life would be a long one.

… always wear pj’s or a formal dress?
A: Formal dress, it’s an illusion of a good life and balance.

 --

I think she did pretty well answering those questions, don't you think? If you'd like to meet her, come and visit Pop Up Art House, she's hanging out there practically every day. Maybe you have some tricky questions you'd like to ask her?

Talking about Pop Up Art House:

ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT OF POP UP ART HOUSE FOR THIS YEAR!

So make the best out of the days that we have left for now, the next opportunity for visiting us will be at late spring 2014.

Two days, gosh! Where has the time gone to?

Tick tock,
the Stranger

Watts up!

Hey hey hey! How are you guys doing? Who's been hanging out at the bar lately?
It's been veeery busy at the house with all the independence celebrations and other performances such as VIBES, Ajmo! and Vauvaukki & Zacharias Petelius to name a few.

And I'm not really into name dropping, buuuut... you might have noticed a familiar face from Finnish tv posing for Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School on last Wednesday.

You know that moment when you're having so much fun that you forget to take pictures? Yeah, that happened to me during last week, which is why I'm not stuffing this page full of pics like I usually do, but here's two that I really like:

Posing at Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School

Vauvaukki & Zacharias Petelius making people dance like there's no tomorrow

By the way, it just came to me, that the Pop Up Art House has only 10 days left for this time around.

Yikes!

So make the best out of the remaining days, there's still many performances to come. Tomorrow there's Bring your inner cat after 10 pm and Pussy Pilsner at 11 pm, on Wednesday Tena&hän after 10 pm. Check the calendar for more events.

P.S. Watch out for another post in a few days time, it will be a special interview with a special person...

P.P.S. Pop Up art House now has croissants available! *drool*

Come and set the night on fire (not literally though),
the Stranger

Meet my homiez

Guys, did you see the premiere of STANDUP! yesterday? Oh maaan it was cool! If you couldn't get to the show yesterday, it would be advisable to make the ticket reservation now (info@blauefrau.com) for tonight. Last chance to see her performance, people.

Here's a little sneak peek of the show:

Uuuu, who's that mysterious lady?

While I'm at it, I could introduce my house and some of my friends here to y'all. There are some weird creatures (sorry fellas, if you're reading this: with all respect) lurking around here, that you might not have noticed. Let's start with a couple of pics of da house:

The main bar area

Good place to chillax

Random party pic!

One of my favourite spots: the bar

 Yeap, that's my home sweet home. Wanna meet my friends now? Okay, first just a word of warning: some of them might seem pretty weird, but the're all cool in their own way when you get to know them.

Lovely ladies 2 and 4

These lovely ladies are sextuplets (this is when six babies are born at the same time, and not what you thought) and they all have pretty names (at least I think so), but one thing you need to know about me is that I have a terrible memory (that is why I take so many pictures btw), so I cannot recall those beautiful names for the life of me. So, I call them lovely girl number 1, lovely girl number 2, lovely girl number 3, lovely girl number 4, lovely girl number 5 and lovely girl number 6 (I know you are not stupid and you got the idea but it is bad enough that I don't remember their names - I have to at least mention them all in this post).

Anyhow, contrary to expectations, the lovely ladies are licensed attorneys and they own a law firm called "Van der Linden and Associates". There is no one called Van der Linden in the firm but they thought it sounded fancy enough and you always need a fancy name when opening a law firm.

After a long day of hard attorneyfull work the lovely ladies enjoy pole dancing; they say it is fun and keeps them in shape. Oh, and they are also nudists, in case you didn't notice.

 

Don't let Papi's sunglasses fool you

The guy's name is Papi. He refuses to talk about his past, which makes me believe that it is either dark or plain boring; I don't really care, to be honest. 

But yeah, he is checking you out (that's what the sunglasses are for).

The babbling Parrot

This poor birdy ran (or should I say flew?) away from a pirate ship, where it was held captive by being glued with superglue to the captain's shoulder.

Okay, this is not entirely true: there was no glue involved. The real reason for the escape was its dissatisfaction with the cookies it was being fed. Parrot swears they were unbearably bad - it suspected that those were in fact dog biscuits (which is completely unacceptable in the parrot world). Parrot is silent during the day, but when all the guests are gone, it just starts blabbing and chattering, driving me absolutely bananas. It just goes on and on and on. And on.

 

"I mustache you a question..."

 Meet Draco. It grew a mustache during Movember and is refusing to let go of it, even though it's already December! The thing is, that a certain someone complemented it on the beautiful 'stache and that's when Draco decided to keep it forever, until death do them (Draco and mustache) part.

The lovely ladies beg Draco to get rid of it (facial hair on a snake really bothers them for some reason) bribing it with Sherry and pumpkin seeds, but there is just no way; the 'stache is here to stay (hehe, it rhymed!).

 

George the Head, the non-Santa

 This is George. George is a head. George the Head cannot lead a normal life due to the fact that it resembles Santa Clause's head way too much. Little kids always run up to George, asking for Christmas presents and expressing their disappointment with the lack of George's body. They are specifically concerned with the absence of lap, where they all seem to want to sit. Weird kids, George says.
George also says that the day it decided to get a red hat during its trip to the Santa village in Lapland was the worst day of its life. Must be tough.

 

Gunther likes to use his head

Carrying on with the topic of heads, here is Gunther. Gunther has no idea how it found itself in the barbecue. This is a mystery worthy of Mr. Holmes's time. Since the barbecue is located in immediate proximity to the lip phone, everyone just assumed that Gunther is a secretary. Now Gunther takes calls. Come on, call Gunther. You know you want to.

One of the members of Los Flamingos

  Many years ago (on the dawn of everything indie) these feathery beauties formed an indie trance band and called themselves Los Flamingos. Now they are spending their retirement days in Pop Up Art House doing nothing but squabble, although they never have anything interesting to say. They are purdy though!

"... and yea maan, I remember when Jimi came to the stage..."

These two don't talk much - unless you mention Woodstock or the Doors, but I don't suggest that you do that because that will ignite them to a long dragged speech which will lull you into deep sleep, and after two hours when you wake up they are still at it. Their names? Never stayed awake long enough to find out.

So those are just a few of my friends here; some of the other ones are a bit more shy and still afraid of this internet thing, so they asked me not to put their pictures here - yet. But they'd really like to meet you though, so come visit them and say hello! They're here pretty much 24/7, although Los Flamingos seem to mysteriously disappear from time to time... I'm beginning to suspect that they're secret agents. Hmm...

And what about my picture, you might ask. Well, I'll give you a clue: I like hanging out around the bar area, and sometimes we like to play dice with Parrot. Let's see if you find me now ;)

See you soon,

the Stranger

Aloha to you all!

Phew, it's been a busy week under my roof at the Pop Up Art House with all the amazing performers and guests. Last night I highly enjoyed Munasarjat's performance and Och Jag Och Tystnad's before that. I'm still wrapping my head around all the things that have happened here, and so to further clear my head I decided to unravel my thoughts by creating this very blog you're reading right now (aloha to you, my friend). In this blog you will be enjoying my ramblings about Pop Up Art House's current and future events, plus be able to share your thoughts and feelings in the comments with other readers. Really, feel free to comment; this is social media for crying out loud!

Being also a photography enthusiast I have been snapping some photos of various performances. I have decided to share my art with the world, so do take a look of what has been happening at my house:

Munasarjat

Ajmo!, Pop Up Art House's very own house band

DJ Noora Kobain and Natashia Nevermind grungin' up the place

Marie Noël playing some electropop

Those are only some of the amazing performances I've had the pleasure to witness and there's plenty to come. Go to Pop Up Art House's facebook page to check out what's coming in more detail. Also you can check the calendar that can be found from this blog.

And who am I, you might ask. Well, you might have seen me hanging around the bar, watching people from my post: silently, like a ninja. I will not reveal my name, for I prefer to stay incognito, as a stranger. But fear not, I mean no one any harm, I am here just to enjoy the atmosphere the people and the performances at my house create. And perhaps sometimes a piece of cheesecake and a glass of chardonnay.

FYI, today is going to be a very special day; Àgnes Kaszás - one of the two who own the Pop Up Art House and takes such good care of us who stay here - will be doing her stand up show, STANDUP! premiere here! Oh my god, I can't even... I mean really, I... I can't even handle my excitement! The show goes from 7pm to 9pm and the tickets (10€/15€) can be booked from info@blauefrau.com - which you'd better be doing at the very moment, if you already haven't done that of course.

If it happens so, that you poor soul can't make it on Monday, then I'd suggest you write that email right now and make sure that you have the tickets for Tuesday at least, as that will be your last chance.
Although I personally would make it my priority to get my butt to the premiere, but just sayin'.


Have a happy beginning of December,
wishing you, the Stranger