The reality of socialism
The illusionary images portrayed in socialist-realist art show an ideal world and hide cruel realities behind the scenes. Today we look back at those depictions with a healthy distance. Having the power to choose between reality and an illusionary world was something many people and countries did not have under Communism.

The contrived world of Socialist-Realism is in focus at an upcoming exhibition entitled: "Happy Budapest? Budapest in the 1950s and 60s," April 9-Aug. 31 at the MEO Contemporary Art Collection. With works of the "healthy pioneer, looking forward to a prospering future," the "proud stahanovista" (award bestowed upon productive workers during the socialist era) or the illusion-filled "happy life of the farmer." The exhibition exposes the tremendous pressures of living in an oppressive Budapest in the 50s and 60s.

The socialist reality is visualized through paintings, intimate faithfully reproduced interiors and everyday objects that until now were stowed in attics and basements.

The historical exhibition, which follows a similar show recently held at Central European University, gives another opportunity to show tourists and Hungarians the ironic images of a supposedly cheerful world, the false optimism and happiness that surrounded the period, which may stir up unwanted feelings or just take visitors for a journey into the past. It also brings forth the question of self-reflection: just what exactly is today’s reality? How do we decipher the difference between reality presented to us, and the "truth" behind these images?

INFO
MEO Contemporary Art Collection
Tel: (36) 1.272.0876
www.meo.org.hu

A collision of cultures
There is something beautiful about the collision of cultures, especially when cultures meet and enrich one another. With this in mind, the United Kingdom will launch a nine-month event series from March through November that brings together eight of the new EU countries from Central and Eastern Europe – with the goal of fostering the cultural relationships.

The "Crossroads for Ideas" program will kick off with a concert by the "King’s Consort and Choir" in Budapest’s Mathias church in mid-March and followed by a four-day-long festival April 15-18 on the A38 boat, entitled: "United Music Kingdom."

Among several other programs, the "Covering Lines" festival April 29-May 9 will promote Hungarian and British poetry, while British fashion days will run from Sept. 25-26 at the M_csarnok museum, where a show by well-known British fashion designers will be held.

Another related event, entitled: "UK Experience-Uniting Kingdom," will sponsor seven young talents from different disciplines from Hungary with a trip to London, where they can learn about the UK and participate in several specialized courses. In launching the event, UK Ambassador to Hungary John Nichols emphasized that his country is open to collaborate in all areas and roads with the acceding EU countries, adding that culture is a great springboard for further partnership.

INFO
Crossroads for ideas
Tel: (36) 1.266.2888
www.crossroadsforideas.co.uk

A true sorcerer at work
Peter Gabriel, or as many call him: the "Rock Sorcerer," is one of England’s most talented singer-songwriters. Gabriel is scheduled to perform a rare concert in the Budapest Sportarena May 15. A one-time member of pop’s legendary musical group, Genesis, Gabriel was considered the most original of the members. He left Genesis after almost 10 years and set out on his own to find himself - which he successfully accomplished in his 10 subsequent solo albums since 1975.

Following musical colleagues like Sting and U2’s Bono, Gabriel stresses the importance of getting involved in sensitive global issues and problems the world today faces. His broad spectrum of activities include the promotion of several human rights and environmental issues. He played a significant role in the launch of Greenpeace in 1989, and more recently took part in the fight against AIDS.

His most recent album, released in the fall of 2003, is called "Up" – the album featured on his current "Growing Up" tour - deals with issues of beginning and end as well as those relating to birth and death. The hope, we can say, is to leave younger members of the audience "never wanting to grow up" and striving to achieve as much as Gabriel has. Gabriel hopes to inspire adult listeners to try and find their lost or hidden youth.

INFO
Budapest Sportarena
Tel: (+36 1) 422 26 00
www.sportarena.hu

Ever-present Giorgione
While many of the allegorical and mythological references of renaissance painting remain elusive to some of today’s viewers, a rare opportunity to see the works of these old masters is like being given a key to a world where artists would be inspired for centuries to come.

This kind of key is all the more tantalizing when dealing with the work of the renaissance master Giorgione, an artist whose short life (1478-1510), and meager but influential output was itself was shrouded in mystery. With Giorgione (or Giorgio da Castelfranco), a student of Bellini, came the birth of High Venetian Renaissance painting and its emphasis on sensuous color, texture and silky surface painting. The upcoming Vienna exhibition will mark the first time Giorgione’s most famous work, La Tempesta, leaves its native Venice to go on tour. Venice also recently held an important exhibition on Giorgione. In addition to the wealthy collection of his works from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the exhibition will also include loans from a variety of important museums including Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, the Uffizi in Florence, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts. Giorgione, who typified the Renaissance, is known, almost mythically as a painter, whose interests spanned the arts including poetry, music, philosophy, as well as alchemy and even astrology. The Giorgione exhibition: Myth and enigma, is on display March 23-July 11 at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

INFO
Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)
Tel: [43] 1.52.52.44.03
www.khm.at

Alberto Giacometti’s " absurd" work on display
" I am not able to see from the front and the side perspective at the same time, and when I look at the eye I cannot see any of its other elements, and this holds for the other parts of the face. Our forbearers thought they had solved this problem, but in reality the Greek and Roman heads do not give the impression of being real heads but sculptures. They are sculptures of sculptures."

This is how one of the prominent figures of modern European art, Alberto Giacometti, (1901-1966) expressed his doubts and spoke about his artistic vision. Get to know the mysterious works of this artist during an upcoming exhibition of the Swiss-born sculptor at Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts March 22-June 15.

Giacometti is one of the few artists whose oeuvre had a fundamental impact on the history of modern art, while significantly influenced many Hungarian artists as well. Some of his works have become emblematic pieces of 20th century artistic vision. According to art historian Michel Conil Lacoste, his oeuvre offers the spectator "the pathos of absurd sculpture."

His ghostly figures with elongated bodies recall both the doubts and tragedies of his era. Materials featured in the exhibition are largely based on the collection of the Alberto Giacometti Stiftung in Zurich.

INFO
Museum of Fine Arts
Tel.: [36] 1.469.7100
www.szepmuveszeti.hu

Painted dreams
What’s in a dream? Budapest’s Ernst Museum is set to host an exhibition entitled: "Painted Dreams: fable, vision and dreams in Hungarian art between 1903-1918." The exhibition, which was shown late last year at the Freud Museum in London as part of the Magyar Magic Hungarian culture celebration in the UK, delves into artists’ inner-most thoughts and dreams and their desire to express ephemeral ideas on painted canvas.

Artists presented in the exhibition include early 20th century Hungarian creators: Anna Lesznai, Gyula Tichy, Lajos Gulácsy, Attila Sassy, Lajos Kozma, and Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka. The curators chose to make a parallel between artists’ visions, their dreams and the scientific theories of 19th century psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

During the exhibition, which runs March 14-April 25, numerous associated programs and events will also take place, including a screening of Zoltán Huszárik’s film "Csontváry" (1979), and a conference April 24 held in association with the Hungarian Psychiatric Association entitled: "Inner and Outer Reality," which will include literary, art historical, biological and psychological discussions.
" If one advances confidently in the directions of your dreams, and endeavor to live a life imagined, you will meet with a success unexpected," wrote Henry David Thoreau.

INFO
Ernst Museum
Tel: [36] 1.341.4355
www.ernstmuzeum.hu