Memorial to the 1956 Revolution, City Park

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Linnea

One of the more recent public monuments in Budapest, this memorial to those who fought for freedom during the ’56 revolution was created in 2006 to commemorate the 50th anniversary. One of the memorable acts of the beginning of the spontaneous revolt against the Stalinist government was the pulling down of a statue of Joseph Stalin. Wikimapia (first time I’ve seen that) has a helpful entry on the monument and the history behind it here.

There was, perhaps not surprisingly, a fair amount of discussion about the sculpture’s design at the time. But I quite like the abstract steel and wood sculpture that fades into, or rises out of, City Park, and I certainly like it more than the idea of a traditional heroic sculpture featuring figures.

HMC’s Library Thoughts 2

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Linnea

Detail, Traveler’s cup 2

This diverse collection of artwork, often related to book arts or Budapest, come from artists all over the world. The Hungarian Multicultural Center’s “Library Thoughts 2” is up at MAGYAR ÍRÓSZÖVETSÉG at Bajza utca 18 in Budapest through September 28. Relating to foreigners’ interactions and reactions to a city that is new to me as well, I enjoyed seeing how others interpreted their experiences. The photograph above shows a statue of St. Stephen (Istvan) on Fisherman’s Bastion, which is on the Buda hills overlooking the Danube and Pest, in the background.

Joo Yean Woo, Traveler’s cup (1, 2, and 3)

Joo Yean Woo’s photographs are meant to examine how the act of collecting can be a more creative process, documenting and archiving experience in a more personal way. Perhaps a good thing for me to be thinking about during my time here.

Xu Yun, Homage to Franz Liszt

Detail, Homage to Franz Liszt

Two other works I liked, Xu Yun’s installation and Marlene Alt’s series of Baroque medallions, responded to Budapest’s Baroque heritage. Homage to Franz Liszt hangs from an ornate chandelier. The transparent sheets feature Liszt’s music as well as the decorative emblem of Hungary, what might be thought of as quintessentially Hungarian symbols, while Alt’s blank clay tiles in different colors have their gilt rubbed off much the way buildings here show their age. They deal with a long artistic heritage, as the title Portraits, Nudes, Heaven, Earth suggests, and refer to the opulent frames that usually hold traditional works of art.

Marlene Alt, Portraits, Nudes, Heaven, Earth

ARC Poster Exhibition, Budapest

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Linnea

ARC‘s exhibition of billboards at Ötvenhatosok square below the park asked artists to address the theme “…with good cheer and prosperity” from the line “God bless the Hungarians with good cheer and prosperity” from the national anthem.

Given the economy, it’s not surprising that many responses are not very happy (although I still have a lot I want to try to decipher through Google Translate). They do offer very interesting insight into the Hungarian mind and situation. The explanatory text also mentions how the free expression exemplified here would have been unimaginable 20 years ago. (And if you, as an American like myself, might be tempted to dismiss this with an offhand ‘so what’, check out this article about current Czech politics and libel from The Economist.)