EU Hongaars voorzitterschap organiseert culturele programma's (en)

In a press breakfast in Kempinski Hotel Corvinus, Hungarofest presented the Hungarian EU Presidency’s cultural programmes planned for the second half of the presidency period. The Liszt Year continues with a concert in the Vatican, the European Neighbour’s Day will be celebrated nationwide and an European statue display will open on the City Park Lake, while Secession also stays on the ’agenda’, and the closing ceremony of the Presidency will be celebrated in a spectacular Danube-party.

The acting Hungarian EU presidency’s cultural programmes are organised by Hungarofest Nonprofit Ltd., with a budget of 550M HUF (2M EUR). May and June bring on several more events, of which the Liszt Year programmes bear special emphasis. The most important Liszt Year event is the concert in the Vatican, which is dedicated by Hungarian President, Pál Schmitt, to the Pope Benedict XVI. The concert features the Hungarian National Philharmonics and the National Choir under the direction of Zoltán Kocsis.

In the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, a touchscreen digital table has been set up, which guides the user along through the exuberant Liszt-oeuvre. The programme is also free to download on iPad. Hungarian and foreign musicians will perform the works of Liszt in concert series in London, Paris and other European cities.

Hungarian culture and its most prominent artists will be present all over Europe in 15 exhibitions altogether during the rest of the EU Presidency. To highlight only a few: an exhibition in Barcelona about the life of the most popular Hungarian writer in Spain, Sándor Márai; the exhibitions in Vienna on the Danube-concept; the display in Berlin on Lajos Kassák, the leading figure of Hungarian avant-garde; and the photo-exhibition entitled Eye-witness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th century, showing works of - among others - Robert Capa, André Kertész and László Moholy-Nagy to the culture lovers of London in June.

One of the exciting programmes organized in Hungary will be the Neighbours’ Day, which debuted last year at the Pécs European Capital of Culture programmes, and which will be organized nationwide this year. As the chief programme coordinator of Hungarofest, Gabriella Mesterházy said, this movement was born in Paris at the beginning of the 1990’s with the vision that neighbours should come closer to each other by doing various activites together, like cooking, excercising and going to cultural programmes. Today it is an international movement, with millions of people joining in for the events of Neighbours’ Day on 5 continents in 30 countries in 1200 cities.

Monika Balatoni, creative dircetor of Hungarofest said at the press breakfast that the ’Masters of European Secession’ exhibition, launched in February, will be accompanied by numerous cultural events from May to October, all based on the idea of ’Budapest as a Secessionist city’. The nearest one is the Secessionist Family Picnic in the National Museum Gardens on May 7, but later there will also be Secessionist Walks around the Secessionist-style buildings of Budapest.

Another major event will be the ’Art on Lake’ statue exhibition, which will bring statues especially made for this occassion by 25 comtemporary sculptors from 14 EU countries to the City Park Lake. The exhibition, showing from May to September, will be accessible on boats as well.

The official closing event of the Hungarian Presidency will be the 3-day long Danube-party - Budapest Summer Launch Festival, spreading out along the Danube from Margaret Island to Kopaszi-gát, with cultural programmes drawing attention to the importance of the city’s river. In Brussels, the Presidency will close with a Hungarian cultural and gastronomy event, which will also be the official ceremony of signing the Danube Strategy.

Tamás Tossenberger

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