[spectre] fwd: antidemocratic makeover of the cultural scene in Hungary

[Janos Sugar]

The antidemocratic makeover of the cultural scene in Hungary

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Recent legislative steps in Hungary point towards 
the authoritarian transformation of the 
institutional structures and funding system of 
cultural life, by giving an ultra conservative 
artist group close to the rightwing government, 
the Hungarian Academy of Arts, an unassailable 
position of power. As a result of these 
decisions, the government has endangered the long 
term autonomy, professionalism and democratic 
procedures of Hungarian contemporary art.   
The government established the Hungarian Academy 
of Arts (MMA) as the preeminent authority in the 
field of arts through the new constitution or 
Fundamental Law, which came into force on 1 
January, 2012. The Academy, which was originally 
founded as a private association in 1992, is made 
up of artists strongly loyal towards the 
government. In order to be accepted as a member, 
the Academy requires a commitment to the nation, 
a certain "national feeling."  In 2011 the 
Hungarian Academy of Arts was transformed into a 
public body, in a process lacking the minimum of 
transparency, and was provided straight off with 
a considerable amount of funding and its own a 
grandiose headquarters. In November the 
government further extended the cultural 
political role of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, 
endowing the organization with unprecedented 
power, including exclusive right of decision 
making over the contemporary cultural 
infrastructure - and a gigantic budget at the 
expense of the whole of the Hungarian cultural 
scene.
According to the announcement of the Ministry, 
the Academy will have the right to be involved in 
the committees deciding about important state 
awards, and next year the entire system of public 
cultural funding and subsidies will be reviewed 
in a process involving the president of the 
Hungarian Academy of Arts.  This funding system, 
which up till now has been operated through 
advisory boards made up of representatives of the 
respective artistic fields - including the 
National Cultural Fund, the organization with the 
most comprehensive activity in the field of 
distributing state support on a professional 
basis - is in danger of being centralized and 
subordinated to a particular interest group, an 
ideologically based community.
The Hungarian Academy of Arts, according to their 
stated intentions, would take over several state 
tasks and responsibilities in the field of 
culture, thus for example they would participate 
in the selection of directors of cultural 
institutions and museums, and even encroach on 
how professional organizations work. 
From 1 January 2013 the Mücsarnok (Kunsthalle) 
Budapest, which is the most significant venue and 
symbolic space for contemporary art in Hungary, 
will become the property of the Hungarian Academy 
of Arts. The Hungarian Academy of Arts will also 
have the right to define the principles and 
professional concepts of the art policy of the 
institution.  Following this announcement, the 
present director of Mücsarnok has resigned.
The legal background of the Hungarian Academy of 
Arts may guarantee its legitimacy in legal terms, 
it does not however make up for its lack of 
professional legitimacy. The upgrading and 
extending of the role of the Hungarian Academy of 
Arts in cultural policy, including raising its 
budget without any public and professional 
consultation, have taken place in an 
antidemocratic way, excluding professional 
organizations and forums. Together with the 
general, dramatic financial restrictions in all 
fields of culture, these processes will result in 
the mutilation of the possibility of maintaining 
a diverse artistic environment in Hungary.
With these measures, the Hungarian government, 
through the Ministry of Human Resources, have 
given over the right to make the most important 
cultural decisions to a society of artists that 
avows and commits itself to conservative values 
and national culture, that also opposes the 
rejection of state and the church control, and 
rejects a contemporary culture that stands for 
the autonomy of art and believes in the critical 
social role of art. It has become evident that 
the political executive power intends to control 
contemporary culture in a direct way with the 
help of legal regulations and put an end to its 
still existing plurality.

Board of the Hungarian section of the 
International Association of Art Critics (AICA)
nemma.international at gmail.com or  aicahu at freemail.hu

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http://linneawest.com/conservative-controls-on-the-hungarian-art-scene/

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http://linneawest.com/democracy-sche-mocracy-i-dont-give-a-damn-for-this-modern-democracy/

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http://beyondeast.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/the-lunatics-have-taken-over-the-asylum/