Queen Elisabeth Exhibition in the Andrássy Palace, Betliar
MúzeumCafé 48.
Queen Elisabeth is not so much in the focus of interest in Slovakia since the bond that evoked her cult in Hungary was lacking there. Nevertheless, the Andrássy Mansion in Betliar is an appropriate location to stage an exhibition about her. Its collection contains significant works of art, documents and relics connected to her person. Only a few temporary exhibitions have been held in the Betliar Andrássy Mansion, given that the mansion and its permanent exhibition are visited by several hundred thousand visitors annually. Yet the concept about the role and task of the mansion and its collection fundamentally changed when art historian Gyula Barczi was appointed deputy director of the Slovak National Museum and director of the Betliar Andrássy Mansion, which operates as a branch of the former (see the interview with him in MúzeumCafé 44). The new director has introduced changes in several areas, such as gradually and continuously reshaping the permanent exhibition, regularly organising temporary exhibitions, systematically processing and presenting the collection and involving contemporary art. The results of these endeavours can be experienced by visitors. In order to make space for the display the rooms on the ground floor have been emptied. The exhibition is arranged among walls painted snow white and, unusually for Slovakia, it has also involved designers. As soon as visitors enter texts in Slovak, Hungarian and English call their attention to the fact that the fantastic world represented by her cult is very far from reality, which was far less fairy-tale-like and more often rather sad than joyful. The exhibition in Betliar is not merely a ‘Sisi display’, since the first room deals with the rather changing and sometimes unfriendly relations between the Andrássys and the Habsburgs, and this theme is addressed throughout.