“It’s important for me to be aware of, and understand, what’s going on around me”
Éva Fisli, historian and museologist, on the Capa exhibition at the National Museum
MúzeumCafé 39.
There have been many exhibitions about Robert Capa. Everyone is familiar with his stories, with the tempter who was admired by women, the courageous photographer, the friend of Hemingway and Steinbeck, the founder of Magnum. To mark the centenary of his birth, the Hungarian National Museum staged a new exhibition, Robert Capa / The Gambler, promoted with the words: “The Capa you have never seen.” In focus of the issue-centred and varied display were new perspectives inviting the visitor to consider the universal questions of life through the fate of the photojournalist turned legend: homeland and emigration, war and peace, creativity and play. The exhibition was accompanied by events, discussions, film screenings and a drama workshop. Much of this was due to the efforts of curator Éva Fisli, head of the Historical Picture Archive and its international collection. Capa’s career was undoubtedly extraordinary, yet the world in which he lived excited the curator even more. Each room was organised around a central theme, highlighted by one word, and the mode of display was surprising throughout. Strangely perhaps, it wasn’t difficult to say something new about Capa, since in general his oeuvre has been analysed from the same perspective. What was necessary was to remain precise and to integrate three years of research into the theme. Éva Fisli joined the Picture Archive in 2009. Before that, she was involved in coordinating international exhibitions. It wasn’t an insatiable desire which drew her to Capa, but the professional challenge. For a while she attended the Camera Anima Open Academy, since as she was dealing with old photographs, she wanted to learn the related techniques as well.