Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Press Room
March 4, 2020, 6pm
Religion on trial? Film and religion during Communism
This film screening event presents Communist-era representations of religion of trial. We contrast a Khrushchev-era anti-religious propaganda film from the Soviet Union with a Hungarian film that employs an ethnographic eye on its object of derision. The screenings will be followed by a discussion with the curators and researchers of the Hidden Galleries project, James Kapaló and Kinga Povedák who will present their own research and that of Hidden Galleries collaborator Tatiana Vagramenko.
Free screenings between February 20 and May 28 of the most successful films from the 16th Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. Eight films will be shown—including the winners and audience favorites—followed by discussions with the filmmakers, experts, journalists, and human rights activists.
The second film of the Re:Verzió series is the winner of the Hungarian Audience Award of the 16th Verzió Film Festival:
March 5, 2020, 6 p.m.
THE EUPHORIA OF BEING
Director: Réka Szabó
Hungary, 2019, 83 min, Hungarian with English subtitles
Religion through the lenses of the secret police
This exhibition is about the ways in which Communist totalitarian states through secret police operations “captured” religion in images, graphics, texts, and folders in order to control and eliminate those they deemed untrustworthy.
Free screenings between February 20 and May 28 of the most successful films from the 16th Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
The traditional Spring film club of Verzió will bring you once more some of the most beloved films from the program of the latest festival edition. 8 films will be shown - including the winners and audience favorites - followed by discussions with the filmmakers, local experts, journalists, and human rights activists.
Venues: Blinken OSA Archive & Central European University
Free screenings between February 20 and May 28 of the most successful films from the 16th Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. 8 films will be shown - including the winners and audience favorites - followed by discussions with the filmmakers, experts, journalists, and human rights activists.
The first film is the winner of the International Audience Award and the opening film of the 16th Verzió Film Festival:
COLLECTIVE directed by Alexander Nanau, Romania, Luxembourg, 2019, 109 min
In Romanian and English with Hungarian and English subtitles
Similarly to previous years, OSA hosted the Budapest100 volunteer meeting. The voluntary researchers and organizers of the two-day festival are introduced to each other and their future tasks here, in the Goldberger House. Organized by the Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre, Budapest100 is a festival celebrating both the architectural heritage and the local communities of Budapest.
Exhibition in commemoration of László Rajk
December 13, 2019 – January 5, 2020
Opening Ceremony:December 13, 2019, 6 p.m.
Opening remarks by István Rév historian, György Jovánovics artist
“Tall men go upward; free men go outward, from the innate to what can be learned. They face three demons of inertia: what is down below, what is inside, and what is in chaos. László Rajk the man votes (ça va, ça va); László Rajk the artist makes a choice. Always against the demons of inertia, and always for freedom.” (Miklós Haraszti)
The Velvet Revolution of 1989
The year 1989 is a symbol of change. For a long 40 years Czechoslovakia, like other countries of Eastern European, lived under the rule of communism and especially the great-power influence of Moscow and the Soviet Union. 1989 brought the fall of this system. Czechoslovakia was one of the last countries where changes took place.
Venue: Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Address: 1051 Budapest Arany János u. 32.
The exhibition runs: November 20 - December 15, 2019.
Organized by the Prague National Museum; Czech Centrum, Budapest; The Slovak Institue, Budapest; the Slovak National Museum; The Blinken OSA Archives
Left Turn, Right Turn examines the social and political context of groups which, because of their artistic and political programs, were drawn either towards the left, or towards the right in their criticism of socialism as it actually existed.
exhibited artists
Members of the Orfeo and the Inconnu groups
and
Irina BOTEA BUCAN & Jon DEAN, LORÁNT Anikó
curated by NAGY Kristóf, SZARVAS Márton
graphic design KRISTÓF Krisztián
exhibition design KRISTÓF Krsiztián, LŐDI Virág
coordinated by SZÉKELY Katalin
Invitation to the launch of László Rajk's Book
Date: 21 November 2019, 6:00 p.m.
Venue: CEU Auditorium (15 Nádor Street, 1051 Budapest)
With: János Kis philosopher, János Rainer M. historian, Edit Sasvári art historian, Béla Tarr film director.
Moderated by András Mink
The event is in Hungarian.
Friday, November 15, 2019, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Impact through film – Human rights in focus
The 5th edition of Doc Lab, co-organized by Verzió and the CEU Visual Studies Platform, will mentor 9 projects in the frame of an intensive filmmaking workshop at CEU Mirabaud Lab from November 11th till 14th. Participants will receive guidance and mentorship in creating a trailer, a short film or documentary essay or in editing a scene or episode from a feature-length project in development. The Doc Lab films will be presented by the participants and the international team of tutors (Zsuzsanna Gellér-Varga, Moniek Wester Keegstra, Jeremy Braverman, Levente Pap) on November 15th at 16.30 at the Blinken OSA Archive.
Doc Lab films are subtitled and presented in English.
Sharpen your perspective – The 16th Verzio Film Festival is coming soon
Between November 12th and 17th, Verzio Film Festival invites you on an amazing trip around the world via the finest human rights documentaries, which will be shown in Budapest, Debrecen, Kecskemét, Pécs, Szeged, and Szombathely. The festival offers three thematic sections that put the state of media, the life of young people, and the Anthropocene age in the limelight.
2019 | Budapest: Screening and Talk by Dani Gal
29 October, 6.00 to 8.00 pm
Venue: Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society archives | Arany János u, 32, Budapest 1051, Hungary
Hosted by: Katalin Székely, Creative Programme Office, Central European University – Open Society Archives
Part of 2019 artist-in-residence, Blood Mountain Projects
Discussion chaired by Prof. Hedvig Turai, art historian and critic
Dot.To.Dot – new curatorial visitor program starts, targeting the Hungarian contemporary art scene run in cooperation between OFF-Biennale and IMPEX
with the lecture of our first international guest, Farid Rakun.
Dot.To.Dot is a newly established curatorial visitor program aiming to boost the links between the members of the Hungarian and international art scenes. We plan to invite 4-5 international curators and critics yearly with stimulating professional backgrounds for a short research trip to Budapest/Hungary. Based on preliminary dialog the tailor-made program of our guests includes meetings with Hungarian art and cultural players sharing common interests and research topics. Additionally, we also organize public events in order to offer a platform for discussion for a wider audience.
1989 from a different angle – Storytelling as a community building mechanism – a visit and a great learning experience at Blinken OSA
On September 2, 2019, a group of 30 teachers and students from 12 different Eastern European countries visited the OSA . The group was participating in a program co-organized by the US State Department and World Learning. They had visited important East and Central European sites of the 1989 transition such as Prague, Bucharest, Timisoara and finished their tour in Budapest to collect the memories of 1989, the communism and post-communism through the eyes and experiences of those who were witnesses to those times.
Collective Dreams and Bourgeois Villas – Site Plan of the Hungarian CIRPAC Group
Blinken Open Society Archives, Galeria Centralis
May 4 – September 15, 2019
Joint opening of the exhibition and the 2019 edition of Budapest100 entitled In the Footsteps of Bauhaus: May 3, 2019, 6 p.m.
Greetings by:
István Rév, Director, Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at CEU
Bálint Kádár, President, Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre
In interwar Hungary, the CIRPAC group was one of the most important representatives of “Neues Bauen” [New building] movement. Farkas Molnár, József Fischer, and their associates, who were linked to Bauhaus and its mentality in several ways, ventured beyond the framework of architecture. Addressing social issues, they wrote publications and organized presentations and exhibitions—even if it meant confrontations with the authorities. Thus, besides architectural achievements, their site plan also presents the complex political conditions of the 1930s.
2019. június 16., vasárnap, 11:00–13:00: Vezetett séta a Blinken OSA Archívumtól a Jászai Mari térig. Június 16-a Nagy Imre kivégzésének és újratemetésének évfordulója, idén a Vértanúk teréről a Jászai Mari térre áthelyezett emlékmű újraavatásának napja. A Blinken OSA Archívum sétáján meglátogatunk több, Nagy Imre emlékéhez kötődő helyet, hogy a megemlékezés változó értelmezési kereteit felidézzük.