Báthory Express project ter gelegenheid van de overdracht van het EU voorzitterschap (en)

The rather shallow proverb about the traditional friendship of Poles and Hungarians will be filled with new and meaningful contents by the project of the Krakow Hungarian Centre. While recalling the memories of the Great Generation they also salute the transfer of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council to Poland.

The name of the project is Báthory Express, alluding to one of the express trains between the two countries, which bears the name of the King István Báthory, who was the King of Poland (1576-1586) after having become the Prince of Transylvania in 1571. The personal union was not the only heroic period in history cherished by the memories of both nations, there were others to follow. As the geo-political situation of the two countries in the East-Central part of Europe has always been similar, no wonder, that the proverb hails the two friends, saying they fight and drink together.

However the organisers of the 2011 Báthory Express did not choose the rail track, as it would not have enabled as many encounters as they had planned beforehand. A Nysa van takes them along their journey through a total of 15 cities in Hungary Poland. The Nysa looks a bit like the Volkswagen Transporter (also known as VW camper), which has grown to become a symbol of the flower-power generation at the end of sixties in Europe and in North-America. The free movement of people and ideas was rather limited in those times, and not only across, but also behind the iron curtain. Nevertheless by train or van, many young Hungarians and Eastern-Europeans ventured to the Krakow theatre festival, the Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw or to the contemporary art exhibitions in Gdansk. Beyond just playing on the nostalgia of these people, the early back-packers of Eastern Europe, the 2011 initiative is trying to get people involved in putting meaningful thoughts, memories and contents into the framework of the legendary but rather shallow notion of the two peoples being long-time friends.

Nysa, the name of the van got its name from the city where it was made, and just like a very similar van, the Zuk, it had been exported in great numbers to Hungary and other East European socialist countries. It is so telling about the contradictions of the era of the cold war and the detente, that the Nysa might have been similar to the VW camper in the rounded shape of its body, but it was carried by a Warszawa chassis, made under licence from the Pobeda, a Soviet car. As late as the second half of the eighties there were still almost 800 ambulance cars running in Hungary made in Poland.

The Nysa of the Báthory Express started its month-long odyssey by leaving Budapest on the 6th of May to complete 3239 kilometres and crossing 15 cities in Poland and Hungary on its way to Warsaw. The van takes two-day-long stops in the cities, hoping to attract people bringing along their memories of contacts between the two peoples, be it stories they tell, memorabilia, photos, etc., all to be documented in a video diary. People are also encouraged to decorate the van by graffiti, to make it a moving board of messages. The documents will be exhibited in both countries. The completed video diary will be presented to the heads of state of the two countries on the 30th of June, when the ceremonial transfer of the acting EU council presidency will take place, thereby joining in the civil societies of both countries into an act of formal diplomacy.

The year 2011 is outstanding not only in the relations of Poland and Hungary, but also for the initiator and organiser of the project Báthory Express, thee Krakow Hungarian Centre, as it was founded exactly ten years ago. The Krakovia ExpressHungarian-Polish Cultural Foundation has been established with the aim of setting up a Hungarian cultural representation in the city which was the European Cultural Capitol that year. In many respects Krakow still counts as the cultural centre of Poland, which is why so many countries have set up their local cultural bureaus here, including France, Italy, Austria, Spain and Germany. However the Krakow Hungarian Centre does not constitute a part of the Hungarian state-run cultural network, which bears the name of a late medieval Hungarian poet, Balassi, it is a privately run foundation instead. Nevertheless the Krakowia Foundation has been able to gain the support of the establishment, the chief patron of their current project being the famous Budapest theatre director István Márta, and its execution being supported by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

The 30-day expedition (Budapest-Pécs-Szeged-Debrecen-Miskolc-NowySacz-Tarnów/Kraków-Katowice-Wroclaw-Lódz-Poznan-Gdansk-Sopot-Warszawa) is not only trying to biuld upon the nostalgia of the people usually called the Great Generation, born shortly after the end of the second world war. It is also trying to mobilise the younger Hungarian generation, believed to be less informed about Poland. A web-campaign for young people interested in visual arts and anther one trying to make matches between artists under the banner HU LOVE PL have also been launched.