The aesthetic adventure
Kornél Mundruczó, film director
MúzeumCafé 15.
Kornél Mundruczó is looking for something similar in museums as in theatre and film: a product which offers free interpretation to the viewer and which concerns what is happening around us. Where else to meet him than in the Kino cinema, which he helped to establish and sponsor. Although it is small, he thinks that’s what makes it good. The films shown here include movies acclaimed at film festivals but not yet distributed in Hungary and whose directors are mostly unknown to local cinema goers. Theatre performances sometimes also feature in the programme. In museums Kornél Mundruczó is looking for contemporary art – works by old masters he rather finds in albums at home. “I regard the aesthetic adventure as something special,” he says, adding that he is pleased when an institution finds its own image and adapts to new demands. Still, he does not find it valuable if the ‘modernity’ of a museum is merely expressed by applying today’s trendy exhibition tools. He also finds that some exhibitions by trying to leave customary forms behind damage the content by the form of display. He thinks it’s all a matter of attitude and mentions a ceramics exhibition in Holland as an example where art objects were displayed in the most traditional way, though visitors were able to feel at ease. Mundruczó’s favourite museum is the Kröller-Müller in Holland, which he always visits when he can, not so much because of the exhibition but the atmosphere of the place, the park and the statues displayed there. “A visit to the Kröller-Müller is for the whole day where, besides the many Van Gogh paintings, it is worth spending time in the park. I don’t like large prominent museums, despite the fact that they also must be visited once. I’m rather attracted to more secret and personal galleries.”