To give an impetus to endeavours
László Csorba, historian, Director of the Hungarian National Museum
MúzeumCafé 15.
Perhaps we can talk about necessity rather than mission. All signs point in the direction that national museums will be needed for a long time. While globalization prevails and Europe becomes unified, it could easily be that language and cultural identity constitute the cementing forces of a nation. We can note important personalities, situations and ideas from the past – which was as extremely complex as the times we are living through – and try to handle them as examples for resolving our present problems. Yet it cannot be done as if applying a template, because history does not repeat itself. There are only perceived similarities and parallels, from which we can perhaps learn some lessons. Tradition can only be maintained by constantly being reinterpreted. For example, what István Széchenyi said about the Croatians cannot be used as a practical recipe today. What can only be taken into account is that he talked about the Croatians and nationality problems in a broad sense, and as early as the 1840s he realized it would create problems if Hungarians were not concerned about the demands of peoples living within the same borders. The Hungarian National Museum was founded in the first half of the 19th century, that wonderful period of development in Hungary which saw the formation of the nation. Its existence became the basis of a very important tradition. As often happened during a nation’s heroic era, the museum functioned as a special ‘temple’ that the period’s, Classicism, dressed such museums with the clothing of a Greek temple. The principles behind setting up an exhibition are always tied to their age. In lieu of that, an exhibition which has served its time well has to be replaced with a new, modern exhibition reflec-ting current thinking.