We admire, yet don’t love it
On the former Museum of the Labour Movement
MúzeumCafé 24.
All that remains of the arts from the 1950s and 1960s is currently in an ideological and physical limbo. Meanwhile, there’s a question for researchers – are these objects part of Hungarian art history or should they be categorised differently, alongside historical documents where they can be examined not so much from the aesthetic point of view but from aspects of politics and social history? With the exception of the Statue Park there is no permanent exhibition and they are rarely presented at large exhibitions of post-1945 works, which are anyway rare. However, they could be regarded as something specially Hungarian, as recent auctions have shown that, although not the most valuable items, they are nevertheless today the most sought after Hungarian art works abroad. For an objective interpretation we had to wait until the political changes, which themselves forced researchers to examine the intellectual heritage of the dictatorship as well as its objects. The first recent sign of this was the 2008 Modem exhibition and its catalogue with text by Gábor Rieder, a specialist in the subject. There were earlier cases of ‘committed’ art (e.g. during the 1919 Council Republic, or – it could be argued – the Roman School), but none of them were homogenous or rejected other artistic styles. While art historians, aestheticians, historians and architectural critics can categorise Socialist Realism, public collections must do something with the actual objects. If we move away from fine arts and take as our starting point cultural heritage in a wider sense, we can say that the Hungarian National Museum has undoubtedly acquired the largest legacy by inheriting the collection of the former Labour Movement Museum. The forerunner of the latter was the Contemporary History Museum established in 1957 with the task of collecting Hungarian historical documents from the 1867 Compromise onwards. In 1966 with the inauguration of the Labour Movement Museum it specifically became a national collecting institution. After existing only as an office and storeroom (first in József nádor Square in Pest, later in Szentháromság Street in the Castle District) in 1974 it opened its doors in Building A of the former Royal Palace, which would later house the Ludwig Museum. Numerically and possibly in significance as well, photographic material represented the backbone of the collection, but other items included furniture, articles of personal use, posters, leaflets, newspapers, objects of art, statues and sculptural designs. The Labour Movement Museum, in contrast to similar institutes in other socialist countries, came under the auspices not of the Party but of the culture ministry. As a newly established museum it continuously collected and organised campaigns. In the forefront was the recently deceased museologist Ferenc Szikossy who, as head of department, organised collection drives and cleverly persuaded the directors of local museums to part with items that the Labour Museum had its eye on. Thanks to a decree of the minister, Ferenc Glatz, in 1989 the institute got back the name ‘Contemporary History’ and over the course of five years the many photos, objects, documents and artworks were transferred to the appropriate collections of the National Museum. The transfer or fusion was managed by Szikossy, who earlier had become director of the Labour History Museum and subsequently became a deputy director of the National Museum. As István Ihász asserts, it’s always difficult to decide what is worth preserving from a given period. At the time of the political changes there was an attempt to gather in the ‘remains’ of defunct organisations, such as the Workers’ Militia. Items included headed notepaper, seals and name-plates – the documents were obviously shared by the national archives. The apartment and office of János Kádár, the deceased former Party Secretary, were the sources of a number of characteristic personal items, such as his chess set, hunting items and gifts. The permanent exhibition of the National Museum today includes such items as the right hand of the Stalin statue, an entrance ticket for the trial of László Rajk and his fellow accused, the pince-nez Imre Nagy wore in prison, as well as many posters, medals, photos and other personal belongings typical of the era. Today it’s only professional criteria which have to be taken into account when organising an exhibition, whereas in the days of the Labour Movement Museum politics was also involved. As an example, István Ihász highlights the recently found 1956 poster of the ruling party which included a call for the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The condition of the poster shows that in the exhibition it was folded over to hide the unacceptable text. The relevant part is whiter, not having yellowed due to the effect of light. In the same manner the bronze monstrosities in the Statue Park raise a smile, as do the dreamy workers in Bernáth’s murals and the obsolete ornaments found in auctions, which produce memories of both a happy and a strange childhood. As an alternative to fusion and assimilation, the Budapest municipality has seen the possibility of a new open-air museum.