Not by bread alone The 320° Arts, Cultural, Educational and Technical Centre in Siófok MúzeumCafé 24. author: Gellért Rajcsányi The 320° exhibition space, named after the temperature required for baking bread, is located in a brick tower-like edifice well known to most residents of Siófok since their childhood. But who could have imagined that the simple, functional building might one day offer something quite different, with many possibilities? László Juhász enters the huge exhibition […]
The spiral in Milan The Museo del Novocento arches from the underground to the cathedral in space, and from the Roman era to the present in time MúzeumCafé 24. author: Ernő P. Szabó A 140-metre-long spiral ramp leads from the depth of the underground up to the sky, or at least to the height of the Duomo’s spires. It’s quite easy to reach Milan’s new, sensational museum building from any part of the city, since there is a direct connection with the metro system. In all likelihood the […]
Study! Study! Study! But what? Where and how in Hungary are future museum experts trained? MúzeumCafé 24. author: Péter Hamvay The article focuses on each area of training professionals for museums. “There is no training specifically for museums in Hungary,” says aesthetician Péter György, one of the most prominent critics of policies relating to museums in Hungary. There is historical museology: in traditional higher education students of ethnography, art history and archaeology study what is […]
Awakening of spring in Székesfehérvár A curator’s reflections on the István Csók retrospective MúzeumCafé 24. author: Révész Emese művészettörténész A few generations ago Csók’s paintings were regarded as being on a level with works by János Vaszary or István Szőnyi, while today it has become fashionable to regard him as a somewhat kitschy painter. As a historian I am not so much concerned about aesthetic quality but rather the wealth of possibilities for interpreting […]
From idea to exhibition Károly Markó Snr. and his Circle at the Hungarian National Gallery MúzeumCafé 24. author: Orsolya Hessky, art historian, Hungarian National Gallery A few years ago the idea arose for an exhibition at the National Gallery of works by Károly Markó Snr. There were several dates which could justify the organisation of such an exhibition, including the approaching 220th anniversary of the artist’s birth, the 150th anniversary of his death, or his Mexican connection, meaning that works […]
Seven-spotted and other ladybirds Insect of the Year joins the Tree, Bird, Wild Flower, Fish and Mushroom of the Year MúzeumCafé 24. author: Ottó Merkl, chief museologist, hungarian natural history museum A number of Hungarian organisations have launched a campaign to call the attention of the public to the importance of nature protection and environmentally conscious living by means of designating a plant or animal for each year. It’s not only the given species which is highlighted, but also its living conditions. The idea behind the […]
‘Resurrecting’ a mummy in the Museum of Fine Arts with face reconstruction MúzeumCafé 24. author: Kustár Ágnes antropológus, Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum Embertani Tár, Végvári Zsófia kutatási koordinátor, Tondo SP1 Kft., Fazekas Ferenc tervezőmérnök, Tondo SP1 Kft Encountering a skull scientists and laypeople wonder what the actual face could have been like. Any well kept skull can be scientifically reconstructed. In the middle of the 19th century German anatomists mainly reconstructed faces of noted people whose authentic portraits existed; thus there was an opportunity for comparison. Professor Wilhelm His, a physician in […]
Mummies uncovered in Budapest Interdisciplinary research in the Egyptian Collection, Museum of Fine Arts MúzeumCafé 24. author: Máté Petrik, Egyptologist, curator of the exhibition In spring 2011 the Museum of Fine Arts launched a comprehensive programme called Budapest Mummy Project to analyse four mummified bodies in its collection, thus connecting with modern mummy research conducted across the world in recent decades. In the 19th century collecting ancient Egyptian artefacts flourished and the first Egyptian mummies turned up in Hungary. […]
Is it necessary to establish a Roma museum and if so what should it exhibit? MúzeumCafé 24. Zoltán Fejős, ethnographer, director, Museum of Ethnography: Founding a Roma museum in Hungary is an old story. It is an issue that has been on the agenda more or less intensively at least since the political changes of 1989-1990. Roma professionals and public figures have expressed the need for such an institution, with support from […]
We admire, yet don’t love it On the former Museum of the Labour Movement MúzeumCafé 24. author: Emőke Gréczi 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 […]