Night of the Museums 2020

from 3 p.m.
The Laborers of Culture. Data on the Situation of Public Collections
Report about Hungarian libraries, archives and museums over the past decade.
The compilation will be available online from 3 p.m.
(in Hungarian)

5 p.m.
Everything about the Goldberger House
Online house tour, with stories about the Goldberger House, the “dollar shop”, and the books molded in concrete. Tour guide: Iván Székely.
(in Hungarian)

5.30 p.m.
Feeling the Regime Change
Presentation by archivist Örs Tari.
(in Hungarian, with English subtitles)

Nothing brings the history of the Hungarian regime change closer than the encounter with documents and artifacts created by political activists, independent artists, or even state security at the time. By highlighting the most interesting items of the colorful holdings of Blinken OSA Archives, we let our audiences experience the atmosphere of the regime change.

6 p.m.
Museum? Lament? – Special Edition
The conversation will be broadcast live.
(in Hungarian)

Art historian József Mélyi and editor and radio journalist Júlia Ránki each year evaluate the situation and changes in the situation of museums and public collections in Hungary on Tilos Rádió (an independent, grassroots radio based in Budapest). This special edition of this will focus, among other things, on the Night of the Museums, the museum development project “Liget”, new decrees and laws, and, above all, Covid-19 and the museums.

7 p.m.
Where did the democratic opposition disappear? A lecture by András Mink
The lecture will be broadcast live.
(in Hungarian)

András Mink will talk about the recent attempts at eradicating the memory of the dissident movements of the late Kádár-era and will explain why the Orbán-regime is irritated by and uncomfortable with the one-time democratic opposition. 

7.30 p.m.
POST-SOVIET – The Photos of Lenke Szilágyi 1990–2002
Virtual exhibition opening
opening remarks by Endre Kukorelly
(in Hungarian)

For more than a decade, photographer Lenke Szilágyi (who for several years has been working as a photo-archivist in the Archives) regularly travelled to the (former) Soviet Union, witnessing and documenting the fall of Communism and the Post-Soviet realities not only in large centers like Moscow or St. Petersburg but also in rural areas (the Black Sea coast, the Volga region, Karelia, etc.). Her photos are sensitive imprints of an era of constant change and territory of eternal immutability; in her portrays she depicts the hopes and despairs of the time, while also adds her own witty commentaries in the diary entries accompanying the photos. The exhibition is the first major show of Szilágyi’s Post-Soviet collection.

8 p.m.
VERZIÓ presents: Dangerous Acts: Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus
directed by Madeleine Sackler, documentary, 76 min, 2013
(Belarusian, English, Russian, with English subtitles)

Creating provocative theater carries great personal risks: emotional, financial, and artistic. For the members of the Belarus Free Theatre, there are additional risks: censorship, imprisonment, and exile. When authorities forbid critical examinations of politics, suicide, sexuality, and alcoholism, the Free Theatre responds by injecting these taboos into performances that are staged underground. But flaunting government censorship and repression comes at some considerable price. Members of the company have been beaten, fired from other jobs, and threatened with rape. Even being an audience member requires some serious subterfuge. Comprised of smuggled footage and uncensored interviews, the film goes behind the scenes with the acclaimed troupe of imaginative and subversive performers. The documentary picks up the story in 2010, with the state crackdown on dissenters sixteen years after Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko takes power. In the aftermath of a dubious presidential election in 2012, the state secret services continue to target the Free Theatre, forcing its members to make a desperate choice: flee the country and continue to work in exile, or stay and risk imprisonment.

9.30 p.m.
Where did the democratic opposition disappear? A lecture by András Mink
The lecture will be broadcast live.
(in English)

András Mink will talk about the recent attempts at eradicating the memory of the dissident movements of the late Kádár-era and will explain why the Orbán-regime is irritated by and uncomfortable with the one-time democratic opposition.

10 p.m.
Everything about the Goldberger House
Online house tour, with stories about the Goldberger House, the “dollar shop”, and the books molded in concrete. Tour guide: Iván Székely.
(in English)

10.30 p.m.
Feeling the Regime Change
Presentation by archivist Örs Tari.
(in Hungarian, with English subtitles)

Nothing brings the history of the Hungarian regime change closer than the encounter with documents and artifacts created by political activists, independent artists, or even state security at the time. By highlighting the most interesting items of the colorful holdings of Blinken OSA Archives, we let our audiences experience the atmosphere of the regime change.