Critical regeneration – financial crisis of Contemporary Arts in Dunaújváros
MúzeumCafé 17.
Within a day of its appearance in March, more than 700 people signed an internet petition in support of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA-D) in the town of Dunaújváros. The local authority was to allocate a budget for the institute guaranteeing its functioning for only six months. The so-far almost 1600 signatories include not only artists, museum specialists and art historians but also local citizens and others who are convinced that the work of ICA-D is tremendously important. The Dunaújváros institute has been involved with internationally acknowledged projects since 1997. Last October the institute had to put a stop to the action of Croatian artist Andreja Kuluncic, who by means of leaflets would have ‘informed’ citizens that Dunaújváros, as the winner of an EU tender, could function as a ‘city-state’ from January. This move to enliven the local community similarly met with disapproval on the part of local politicians, as did János Sugár’s dual-language, Hungarian and Slovak work ‘Sorry!’, which looked like a road sign. For the decision makers, besides the questionable projects, at issue was a change in the institute’s management after its former head Franciska Zólyom had moved abroad. The institute’s maintaining body, the Foundation for Modern Arts, decided to develop a new structure for the organisation in which three administrators would take the place of one director. Art historian János Szoboszlai is coordinating the work of the trio, which apart from himself includes József Mélyi and Sándor Hornyik. The success of the modernisation planned by the administrators, however, has been quickly put in doubt. An article entitled ‘Withdrawal symptoms’ published by a local newspaper in January declared that the Institute of Contemporary Arts had become financially unsustainable.