What Is Hungarian?

Con­tem­por­ary Ans­wers

Cura­tor: Gábor Gu­lyás Na­ti­o­nal iden­tity has been one of the most pro­mi­nent to­pics of Hun­ga­ri­an pub­lic dis­cus­sions for more than two cent­uri­es now. Its quest­ions ap­pear in nu­me­rous works of art, par­ti­cu­larly after the birth of his­to­ric­ism, the last great con­sis­tent sty­lis­tic trend of Ro­man­tic­ism. In the first part of the 19th cent­ury, in the so-called Re­form Era, in the wake of Ger­man trea­ti­ses on the cha­rac­ter of na­tions, Hun­ga­ri­an na­ti­o­nal cha­rac­ter also be­came the sub­ject of va­ri­o­us aca­de­mic dis­cus­sions. The time of the Mil­len­ni­um (1896) and the de­ca­des fol­lo­wing the loss of Hun­ga­ri­an ter­rit­ori­es in the First World War wit­nes­sed the re­sur­gen­ce of these de­ba­tes. The sub­ject was more inf­lu­en­ti­al than ever: hund­reds of ar­tic­les were pub­lis­hed on the quest­ions con­cer­ned. The dif­fe­rent app­ro­a­ches qu­ickly se­pa­ra­ted: whe­re­as the 1937 spe­ci­al issue of Szép Szó en­tit­led Mi a Ma­gyar most? (What is Hun­ga­ri­an now?) at­temp­ted to con­cep­tu­a­li­se the quest­ion of na­ti­o­nal iden­tity ma­inly from the pers­pec­tive of the po­li­ti­cal left, in 1939 the vo­lu­me edi­ted by Gyula Szek­fű en­tit­led Mi a Ma­gyar? (What is Hun­ga­ri­an?) took ac­count of the pos­sib­le ans­wers from a con­ser­va­tive point of view. The first book inc­lu­ded ar­tic­les by such pro­mi­nent Hun­ga­ri­an in­tel­lec­tu­als as At­ti­la Jó­zsef, Pál Ig­no­tus and Fe­renc Fejtő, while the se­cond fea­tu­red writings by equ­ally inf­lu­en­ti­al fi­gu­res such as Mi­hály Ba­bits, Zol­tán Ko­dály and Lász­ló Ra­vasz. The pre­sent ex­hi­bit­ion at Kun­sthal­le re­gards both tra­di­tions to be es­sen­ti­al points of ori­gin. The disp­la­yed works do not serve as il­lustra­tions of the fun­da­men­tal quest­ions of na­ti­o­nal iden­tity or na­ti­o­nal fate, but rat­her crea­te a ge­ne­ral pic­tu­re of the dif­fe­rent ways art may rep­re­sent va­ri­o­us pos­sib­le app­ro­a­ches to these is­sues. What is Hun­ga­ri­an now? The res­tora­ti­on of Hun­ga­ri­an de­moc­racy in 1990 after de­ca­des of com­mu­nist dic­ta­torship, the count­ry’s joi­ning the Euro­pe­an Union, and the re­cent eco­no­mic cris­is have made these quest­ions ti­mely once again. The pre­sent ex­hi­bit­ion does not in­tend to give de­fi­ni­te ans­wers: our aim is to give a comp­re­hen­sive sur­vey of con­tem­por­ary ar­tis­tic ref­lec­tions on this topic for the first time in its his­to­ry.

Sup­port­ers: Na­ti­o­nal Cul­t­u­ral Fund of Hun­gary, Mi­nistry of Human Re­sour­ces, Perla Harg­hi­tei

Media sup­port­ers: MTVA, Tv2, Heti Vá­lasz, HVG, In­fo­Rá­dió, Index