Magyar Magic to kick off in the United Kingdom

Hungarian Cultural Centre (HCC)
Tel: 00 44 [0] 20 7240 8448
www.hungary.org.uk

A year-long festival throughout the UK, entitled ‘Magyar Magic - Hungary in Focus 2004,’ will begin next month in celebration of Hungarian culture as it prepares for entry to the European Union (EU). Magyar Magic is an opportunity for Hungary to introduce itself to one of the largest EU members – through hundreds of scheduled events in 14 cities across the UK.
Hungary, which already boasts a long list of acclaimed writers, directors and painters, aims to use the festival to promote some of its other stars, including the Balázs Elemér Group, the Keller Quartet and Márta Sebestyen’s Muzsikás. The event is coordinated by the Hungarian Cultural Centre (HCC) in London. It will feature a wide array of Hungarian artists through diverse programming including independent films, theater, operetta and ballet performances, sculpture, paintings, photography and video exhibitions as well as classical, orchestral, folk, jazz and modern music concerts.
Although there was a summer preview, the official launch of Magyar Magic will take place Nov. 3 in London under the patronage of Hungarian President Ferenc Mádl and Queen Elizabeth II.

Raoul Wallenberg commemorated

Raoul Wallenberg International Movement for Humanity
Tel: [001] 514.343.0137
www.rwallenberg-int.org

Sweden’s heroic diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg, who is credited with saving an estimated 100,000 Jews during Nazi-occupied Budapest, was commemorated in Montréal, Quebec on the 91st anniversary of his birth. An exhibition of photographs, initiated by the Raoul Wallenberg International Movement for Humanity, was opened by local political and diplomatic guests in the presence of Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky.
During the Nazi occupation of Hungary, Wallenberg issued Shutzpasses – diplomatic passes which granted immunity to thousands of Jews – and used his diplomatic status to deter the fascist party from obliterating Budapest’s Jewish ghetto.
" He is a part of our history now; we use all opportunities to remember him and remind the world about him," said Demszky.
Budapest officials are expected to name Wallenberg an honorary citizen next month, while organizers have been lobbying Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Megdyessy to declare the Swede an honorary Hungarian citizen, a title which he enjoys in Canada, the United States and Israel.
" Raoul Wallenberg: Symbol of Justice and Humanity" is on display at Place de la Cathédral in downtown Montréal from Oct. 8 to Oct. 29.

Intimate journeys

MEO Contemporary Art Collection
Tel.: [36] 1.272.0876
www.meo.org.hu

The MEO - Contemporary Art Collection begins its fall season with another controversial photography exhibition, this time by Japanese artist Nobuyoshi Araki, who tests the limits of photography and pornography.
Araki’s journey initially began more tempered, with a photo album entitled "Un Voyage Sentimental," together with his now deceased wife Yoko, in 1971. This early series consisted of deeply personal glimpses into the couples’ honeymoon, along with views of their everyday life. With her death in 1990, Araki’s work began to depict a mixture of young women, prostitutes and schoolgirls.
The artist says his photos are meant to serve as a means of portraying reality and truths, yet to this day, they have even remained subject to harsh censure in his home country.
The show, which runs through Nov. 20, consists of almost 100 large-sized photographs from the artist’s series ‘A’s lovers,’ ‘Yugawara,’ ‘Araki Flowers’ and ‘Bandage.’

Multidisciplinary Budapest Fall Festival

Budapest Fall Festival
Tel.: [36] 1.486.3322
www.festivalcity.hu

The Budapest Fall Festival, a forum for both Hungarian and international artists, will kick off in late October. The festival will be a forum for theater, dance, music and fine and media arts. The traditional two-week cultural gathering offers a variety events at 13 different venues throughout Budapest.
Among these are the traditional locales including the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, the Merlin Theater, the Víg Theater and the Franz Liszt Music Academy, as well as a number of new venues including the Rudas Bath. Guests at this year’s event include the noted Swedish Cirkus Cirkör Company, the Hungarian Compagnie Pál Frenák, and György Ligeti’s Madrigals, performed at the Rudas Bath.
The Amadinda Percussion Group and the UMZE Chamber Orchestra will present Steve Reich’s famous works, in addition to the MU Theater, who will offer a series on Japanese contemporary art. At the same time, the Merlin Theater will show the English version of Hungary’s Hamvai Kornél Hóhérok (Headman’s Holiday). World-famous jazz drummer, Peter Erskine, and the Eric Truffaz’s Band will also partake in the festival. There will be a number of other performers including Italy’s Teatrino Clandestino, with The Iliad, and France’s Jean-Claude Gallotta dance company with their Mammame choreography. The Budapest Fall Festival runs from Oct. 17 through Nov. 2.

Dancing surprises of Jean-Claude Gallotta

Trafo House of Contemporary Arts
Tel.: [36] 1.215.1600
www.trafo.hu

One of France’s leading contemporary dance companies, led by Jean-Claude Gallotta, will perform next month in Budapest during the Budapest Fall Festival at the Trafo House of Contemporary art.
Gallotta, studied visual arts before pursuing a career in dance by studying with the world-renowned Merce Cunningham, one of the most important figures in contemporary dance today.
Jean-Claude Gallotta’s Groupe Emile Dubois was established some 25 years ago in the French City of Grenoble and is known as being the soul behind what eventually became the ‘nouvelle danse,’ or new dance. When Gallota first began choreographing in the late 1970s, audiences witnessed a new horizon and creative forms for dance with movements from everyday life performed on stage.
Gallota’s world does not cease to surprise audiences. The movement is a blend of formalism, abruptly interrupted by seemingly everyday movements. His most recent works, such as the one to be performed in Budapest on Nov. 1 and 2, is entitled ‘Mammame,’ and refers to a more elegant, puritan style.

A glimpse of everyday life behind the Iron Curtain

Centrális Gallery
Tel.: [36] 1.327.3250
www.osa.ceu.hu

Hungarians can relate to them, and so can former East Germans. They are the everyday items millions of people lived with before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Such objects will be on display at the Centrális Gallery in Budapest in a special exhibition that showcases everyday life inside the German Democratic Republic entitled, "GDR-Life and Style."
The objects are on loan from the German Daily Life Documentation Center in Eisenhüttenstadt. The exhibition is aimed at presenting the standardized material culture that typified controlled lifestyles of socialist East Germany during the 1950s to 1970s.
A variety of objects from typewriters and lamps to dishes and chairs are currently on display throughout the gallery. Household plastics, electronics and so-called consumer goods necessary for living were mass-produced for populations living behind the wall.
The exhibition, which runs until Nov. 30, also includes a section entitled "Hungarians working in East Germany," with documents highlighting the dissatisfaction and discontent of Hungarians workers sent to East Germany.