Kazincbarcika KolorCity

There is living proof that grey is not a color but rather a state-of-mind and one that can be changed. The story took place in an unremarkable town in an out-of-the-way place in Hungary. In this town, called Kazincbarcika, time had stopped for more than four decades. Its reputation – if anyone really ever thought about it at all – was as a city, old and dusty, of big blocks of grey buildings, a city of boredom – in other words a city that was little known and pretty grey.

But the city was ready to change that. They needed a solution that would not require a lot of money but would bring new life into the community. The most obvious answer was a festival since Hungarians are big festival-goers, but since there are so many festivals all over the country, Kazincbarcika needed something different. A concept evolved to make the whole city the event rather than hold a festival in the city. Offering the city’s buildings and parks as a canvas, the city involved the community, inviting artists to be the paintbrush. Formerly grey buildings burst with color. Huge colorful artist-signed art pieces and statues appeared everywhere, and KolorCity was born.

The result was monumental. Media came to tell the story. Tourists flocked to Kazincbarcika. The greyness vanished, and there is a clear change in perception, proving grey is only a state-of-mind that can be changed with creative solutions and hard work.

Artificial Group was not only a supporter of the project, one of the agency’s founders Istvan Aved, was born and raised there.