mon-art residence programme in hungary

Tihany Benedictine Abbey is an 11th‑century monastery and major landmark above Lake Balaton, with a Baroque church, crypt, museum, visitor centre, and surrounding grounds overlooking the village and the Inner Lake. It functions simultaneously as a parish, pilgrimage site, cultural centre, and producer of herbal and lavender-based goods linked to the Balaton–Bakony landscape.

The Tihany Abbey is a sacred, and heritage site receiving many visitors annually. A major challenge lies in balancing its monastic identity with its public visibility and tourism-related exposure. Religious sensitivities, especially where artistic interpretations intersect with sacred space. At the same time, the monastery sees art as a means of dialogue — it regularly hosts exhibitions, concerts.

Cultural / social relevance: The abbey is a key symbol of Hungarian Christian heritage, home to exhibitions (e.g. the Deed of Foundation display), concerts, themed guided tours, and special events like the Night of Museums (Múzeumok Éjszakája) and summer concert–lavender programmes, attracting both local communities and large numbers of visitors. Tihany itself is framed as the “pearl of Hungary,” where lavender fields, views and historical layers generate a strong sense of place and seasonal tourist pressure.

Intended use of the residency: The abbey museum, education and visitor areas for process presentations, workshops, small-scale installations, and interpretive materials connected to existing exhibitions and tours. Outdoor spaces such as herb plots near Belső‑tó, walking paths and viewpoints for land art, sound walks, participatory mapping, or gentle performative actions that do not disturb liturgical life. Parish / cultural programmes (concert evenings, themed tours, lavender events) as moments for public interaction, small interventions, or co-created actions in collaboration with abbey staff.

Purpose and Focus

Main Purpose: The residency at Tihany Abbey focuses on artistic exploration of Benedictine heritage, landscape, and lavender–Balaton ecologies, through slow, community-linked practices that align with MON-ART’s values of sustainability, ethics, regeneration, inclusion, and circularity. The main purpose of the residency is to host artists whose work responds to the Benedictine rhythm of life, the cultural–spiritual heritage of Tihany Abbey, in the specific landscape of the Balaton Uplands, developing site-sensitive works that activate dialogue between monastic tradition, contemporary culture, and the seasonal flow of visitors. The key aim is to develop a practice rooted in observation, sensitivity, and resonance – to listen to the abbey’s layered histories and its present-day life. Artists will be encouraged to explore the spiritual heritage, liturgical life, and community roles of the Benedictine monks, along with the lavender cultivation, while also reflecting on the site’s evolving identity as an important cultural landmark.

Specific thematic focus: Heritage, ecology, and craft-based regeneration, with particular attention to lavender cultivation, medicinal herbs, and the coexistence of people and nature on the peninsula (e.g. herb gardens by Belső-tó/lake, local lavender culture and Balaton–Bakony Geopark context).