Magyar Nemzet
21 February 2007

Kunsthalle Scandal Because of Venice

“The best proposal, which reflects on last autumn’s events on Kossuth Square, was put aside by the so called independent National Commissioner after consultation with the State Secretary for Cultural Affairs.

In vain do we talk about the independent decision making power of the National Commissioner, when he can only realise what the Ministry of Culture allows. And this naturally could not be the 1956 Remake.’
(front page)

Venice with National Insecurity

‘Since the best project – by curators Maja and Reuben Fowkes and the artist Csaba Nemes – recalls the events of last autumn as a Remake referring to the 1956 Revolution, and since the decision of the National Commissioner was reached after agreement with the Culture Ministry State Secretary, it is hard to explain away what happened...

The jury itself did not consider the formal mistake a mistake at all, and unanimously judged it to be the best proposal ‘in less than five minutes.’
(page 14)

Népszabadság
21 February 2007

The Saga of the Biennial

“In January a five person jury of art historians excluded four of the twelve applications that had been received on the grounds of formal inadequacies. They quickly looked over the faultless applications, made a horrible face, then pulled out the excluded ones. They voted for Csaba Nemes’s animation film project, which deals with the events of last October, such as the storming of the Hungarian TV building, the starting of the tank, and the battle with the police. Petrányi [National Commissioner] happily announced to the press that only problem with the winning application was that instead of one curator there were two.

But really there was a problem! Petrányi set off with one of the jury members, Geza Boros who works in the Ministry of Culture, to consult in the Ministry to get official blessing for the application with a formal mistake…

One journalist raised the question whether the ‘original’ winner, Csaba Nemes’s film dealing with a revolutionary theme, was eliminated because of political pressure. Geza Boros did not deny this, all he said was: that’s the opinion of the press.” (page 11)

Népszava
21 February 2007

Venice Biennial with Hungarian Question Marks

‘Csaba Nemes’s project was unanimously supported by the jury, the formal error of which was to name two instead of one curator. The jury thought that if the competition ended up with no result, then the National Commissioner would then be able to use his legal right to select the project…

It remains in the air, and is an opinion expressed in several papers, that the ministry did not support the installation dealing with the disturbances of last autumn because of its content.’
(page 6)

Magyar Hirlap
20 February 2007

Biennial: Peace Making gets out of Control

‘The journalists asked what really happened in the Ministry, was Nemes Csaba’s proposal actually rejected because recalling the disturbances could be embarrassing to the government, rather than for formal reasons?’

Index.hu
20 February 2007

Swearing in the Kunsthalle Cellars

‘The jury liked the idea of making an animated film about the October disturbances, and so Petrányi optimistically made a press statement. He indicated that the proposal in question did have a formal mistake, in that two instead of one curator was specified. He said he would announce it as the winner as soon as he had sorted out a few formalities in the Ministry…

Then we asked, on the basis of information from inside sources, whether it was because of the political implications of a project dealing with the October disturbances that the work with formal errors was not realised. Was it decided that after all it was not desirable to have Hungary represented by these events at an international exhibition.’