Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Press Room
Posted: 03/June/2019
A curatorial tour of the exhibition at Galeria Centralis: Collective Dreams and Bourgeois Villas – Site Plan of the Hungarian CIRPAC Group. Contemporary dreams and villas – Montage making workshop with Lili Thury graphic designer: What does a contemporary bourgeois villa look like, what are the newest ideas concerning the housing crisis? Current architectural magazines will be cut into pieces and then put together into a montage to be used as a means to express our own vision about contemporary architecture and social issues. The montages could be used to make flyers, posters and fanzines that can be printed and taken home.
Posted: 01/June/2019
Respect and Mercilessness: 1956-1989-2019
All day screening of archival video footage on three screens from 1989 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the reburial of the executed Prime Minister, Imre Nagy and his closest political allies.
By attending this event visitors can express their solidarity with the current situation of the 1956 Institute and with the primacy of historical facts over a distorted historical narrative.
Posted: 01/June/2019
Meghosszabított határidővel, július 15-ig várja a nevezéseket a VERZIÓ Filmfesztivál VR-szekciója.
Posted: 24/April/2019
Blinken OSA launched Refugee DocsMap, a visual geographic catalog of recent documentary films on the global refugee experience in the 20-21th century.
Posted: 11/April/2019
Blinken OSA has a collection of English language letters written by children of Sarajevo in 1993, to their peers (“Dear unknown friend”) in the United States as part of the Pen Pals for Peace Program initiated by George Soros. In the past few weeks we have processed and digitized the letters. We keep the digital copies and two of our colleagues, Csaba Szilágyi (Head of Human Rights Program) and József Bóné (Head of IT) took the originals to the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo.
Posted: 30/March/2019
Verzió welcomes applications to its 16th festival edition taking place November 12-17, 2019. Festival locations: Budapest, Kecskemét, Pécs, Szeged (Hungary). The documentary film festival invites you to submit your film in one of the following categories:
Posted: 28/March/2019
Will there be a 1989?
From March 14 to 15, 2019 Blinken OSA organizes a series of programs to commemorate the events in 1989.
Posted: 22/March/2019
MEMORY SCREENS: Landmarks in the 1990s Generation’s Memories about the NATO Bombing of Serbia
Curated by Mila Bajic (MA Nationalism Studies) in cooperation with the Blinken Open Society Archives
Wednesday, 27 March 2019, 11am
Blinken Open Society Archives at CEU
Arany János utca 32, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
Posted: 19/March/2019
Encore screenings of popular films from Verzió 15
February 7 – March 21
THE TIME OF FORESTS
Directed by Francois-Xavier Drouet, France, 2018, 103min, French
*English and Hungarian subtitles
Synopsis:
As the symbol of authentic, preserved, wild nature, forests are undergoing an unprecedented phase of industrialization. Heavy mechanization, monoculture, fertilizers and pesticides, loss of traditional know-how, forest management—all follow the intensive agricultural model at an accelerated rhythm. The Time of Forests is a journey to the heart of industrial forestry and its alternatives. A living forest or a green desert, the choices of today will define tomorrow's landscape.
Trailer:
Posted: 20/February/2019
These workshops focus on various aspects of freedom and democracy and look at ways of dealing with the past.
Posted: 18/February/2019
Unique archive footage reconstructs one of the first show trials, masterminded by Stalin, which unfolds as a theatrical performance with actors - prosecutors, witnesses, defendants, judges - lying to themselves, to the audience and to the world. The drama is real, but the story is fake. The film gives an unprecedented insight into the origins of a deadly regime, which made the slogan "Lie is Truth" its everyday reality.
Posted: 01/February/2019
THE ILLUSION OF THE REPUBLIC
November 16, 2018 – March 3, 2019
Galeria Centralis
(Blinken OSA – Radio Free Europe Archives)
1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.
Opening ceremony: November 16, 2018, 5:00 p.m.
Opening speech (in Hungarian): László Majtényi (Chairman, Eötvös Károly Policy Institute)
This year is the centennial of the proclamation of the first Hungarian Republic, which took place on 16th November 1918. To honour this occasion, the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) presents The Illusion of the Republic exhibition, focusing on the rootless nature and the fall of the three Hungarian republics that were established in 1918, 1946 and between 1989 1990.
Curator: András Mink
Presented by Eszter Csákányi
Posted: 01/February/2019
The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (Blinken OSA) at Central European University, one of the initiators of the Open Access Movement, each year, awards one fellowship honoring the work, legacy and memory of our friend, Aaron Swartz, either to an unconventional technology expert early in his/her career, or a scholar or activist working at the intersection of humanities, social sciences and technology studies or technological solutions. The $10,000 fellowship is principally intended for those, with or without a degree, who have strong practical skills in developing technological tools to make knowledge and data broadly available to the public; who have an interest in challenging information management practices in libraries and archives; who are ready to contribute to building innovative visual taxonomies or catalogs based on unorthodox ideas; and who can challenge the control of information by governments and publishers to promote civil liberties and online activism.
Posted: 31/January/2019
WELCOME TO SODOM – Where do our used phones end up? What kind of lives emerge from our electronic waste?
After the screening, Logan Strenchock, CEU’s Sustainability Officer, will ask our guests, Gergely Simon from Greenpeace Hungary and Ervin Tihanyi, head of electronic waste handling at Intermetal Recycling, about their experiences during their visit to Sodom.
Posted: 22/January/2019
The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University (CEU) invites applications for a full-time (40-hour/week) Receptionist position starting on March 18, 2019.
Posted: 21/January/2019
Published in the International Association for Media and Communications Research (IAMCR) Series of Palgrave Macmillan in December 2018, Visual Imagery and Human Rights Practice, edited by Sandra Ristovska and Monroe Price, is a collection of 18 essays exploring how images influence and inform human rights work from archiving through justice making to activism.
Posted: 21/January/2019
Encore screenings of popular films from Verzió 15
February 7 – March 21
The annual encore screening series, Re-Verzió, which has been typically held in the last cold weeks of winter – will supply the perfect atmosphere for watching movies and gathering in warm places. Watch award winner films and meet your peers for a follow up discussion about important matters.
Posted: 20/January/2019
This course focuses on the construction of memory and identity narratives through images. Its seminars and workshops are designed to complement each other while developing participants’ abilities to analyze and communicate with and through images which is a required competency nowadays both inside and outside of the academia. The course explores narrative constructions of personal and collective identities and representations of the past (particularly the traumatic events of the twentieth century) by addressing works made in various media – modern art, documentary and fiction film, TV broadcasts, multimedia and web-based projects.
Posted: 15/January/2019
Accountability, Truth and Justice in the former Yugoslavia, which gives an overview on the current status of regional cooperation on missing persons, prosecution of war crimes, and victims’ participation in transitional justice mechanisms, as well as the role of archives, art, media, and museums in the memory work related to the 1992-1995 Yugoslav Wars. The report is the outcome of a conference organized in Sarajevo in October 2018, in the archival panel of which Blinken OSA was invited to participate as an expert of records dealing with the history of and atrocities committed during these wars.
Posted: 12/January/2019
The Next Guardian
A film by Dorottya Zurbó and Arun Bhattarai
Date: March 12, 6:00 p.m. Venue: Blinken OSA, Arany János u. 32.
Posted: 10/January/2019
Presented by the NEP4DISSENT COST Action and the
Donald and Vera Blinken Open Society Archives
Thursday, January 31, 2019
19.00-20.30
Main Gallery
Posted: 28/December/2018
As a replacement of Imre Nagy's statue, the current Hungarian government is planning to recreate a copy of the monument of National Martyrs, erected by Miklós Horthy's government in 1934.
A video covering the inauguration of this statute is available on the link below:
https://filmhiradokonline.hu/watch.php?id=969
Posted: 14/December/2018
In the summer of 2018, OSA received a unique collection of propaganda and promotional films produced by the Hungarian Propaganda and Tourism Agency (Idegenforgalmi Propaganda és Kiadó Vállalat) before the regime change in 1989-1990.
Posted: 10/December/2018
Book presentation: Márta Elbert – Through the Lens of a Small Camera
- public and private issues -
Introduction by Bálint Magyar, followed by a discussion – in Hungarian – with the participation of the author of the book and Erzsi Sándor.
December 13, 2018, 5:00 p.m.
Blinken OSA Archives
1051 Budapest Arany János u. 32.
Posted: 09/December/2018
Scholarship to Fund the Hiring of a Research Assistant to Conduct Research in the Hoover Institution Archives RFE/RL, inc. Collections
A grant is offered jointly by the Freedom Broadcasting Foundation and the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University, to fund the hiring of a research assistant to conduct distant research in the Hoover Institution Archives RFE/RL, inc. Collections.
Posted: 04/December/2018
The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University – the archives of Radio Free Europe – operates in Budapest.
Posted: 04/December/2018
Peter Pastor, professor emeritus of history at Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ., donated his personal papers related to the Atlantic Research and Publications, Inc. (ARP) to Blinken OSA. Professor Pastor is a prominent member of the 1956 Hungarian exile community in the US and a historian focusing primarily on diplomatic and military relations between Hungary and Russia/USSR, and on twentieth century Hungary. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of seven books.
Posted: 27/November/2018
The organizers of the demonstration outside the Hungarian Parliament from November 24 – December 1, 2018, invite all to participate in their open lectures, musical performances, and cultural events.
"At the conclusion of 24 November Tüntetés a Tudomány és az Oktatás Szabadságáért, we will remain on Kossuth Square. Throughout the next week we will occupy the heart of Hungarian political power, showing Orbán and Fidesz that our coalition is committed to freedom of thought and education in this country. Whether we leave or stay we remain committed to Hungary."
Posted: 08/November/2018
Scopes and Constraints in 20th Century Hungarian History
Lecturers: historians András Mink and Krisztián Ungváry
Organizer: Blinken OSA / Central European University
Continuing education registration number: 27282-153-2016
Number of credit hours: 30
Course dates: December 8, 2018 - April 6, 2019
The course meets 8 times on Saturdays: December 8, 2018; January 12 and 26, 2019; February 9 and 23, 2019; March 9 and 23, 2019; April 6, 2019.
Course times: 10:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. (2x90 minutes with a 30 minute break)
Course venue: Blinken OSA Archives, 1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.