Press Room

Contested Memories: Antifascism, Jews and the Holocaust
Posted: 12/October/2023
This roundtable discussion explores the various ways the Holocaust was represented in Cold War Central Europe, considering major examples of official memory politics, exhibition histories, fine arts, and literature in the 1960s. It considers the agency of state actors, the Jewish community, as well as individuals, especially artists and writers, paying special attention to the eminent role played by the antifascist historical narrative. OSA Archivum’s current exhibition offers a starting point for the discussion. Titled “Commissioned Memory. Hungarian Exhibitions in Auschwitz, 1960/1965,” it introduces a monumental fine arts collection commissioned for the 1965 Hungarian exhibition in Auschwitz, as well as an exceptional work from 1960 (‘Vampire Hitler,’ based on Simon Wiesenthal’s 1946 drawing), created for the same venue.
 
(Photo: Lajos Erdélyi)
Posted: 12/October/2023
Lajos Erdélyi’s unique legacy has been donated to the Blinken OSA Archivum. Its backbone is a collection of some 20,000 photographs documenting everyday life and art in Transylvania between 1950 and 1990. The photographic negatives, sound recordings, and manuscripts found their way to the Archivum thanks to the family and the intermediaries who worked to preserve the legacy.
 
The book cover of In Visible Presence Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos
Posted: 04/October/2023
The Book published by The MIT Press is an absorbing exploration of Soviet-era family photographs that demonstrates the singular power of the photographic image to command attention, resist closure, and complicate the meaning of the past.
 
(Photo: Peter Lorenz)
Posted: 20/September/2023
The Blinken OSA Archivum offers undergraduate and postgraduate academic courses and specializations to Central European University (CEU) students, organized in cooperation with the departments of Legal Studies and History, and for CEU’s annual Summer University (SUN). The Archivum's teaching staff, commuting between Budapest and Vienna, have been fully directing or co-teaching mandatory historiography courses or seminars on the uses of archives, history writing, and legal issues. Underpinned by the Archivum’s holdings, the lectures address the historian’s craft, truth, and objectivity, and study human rights issues and related cinematic and evidentiary practices.
 
Source: Hungarian National Museum
Posted: 03/August/2023
The exhibition and book project introduces completely forgotten yet exceptional works of art exhibited at the first Hungarian exhibition in Auschwitz in 1960 as well as a monumental fine arts collection commissioned for the 1965 permanent exhibition at the same venue. With the addition of the earliest Hungarian artworks dealing with the Roma Holocaust, the current exhibition highlights the absence of the issue from the 1960s shows.
 
Still from the film “Unfinished Spaces” (2011) / AJNA Films and The Room
Posted: 02/August/2023
The closing event of the exhibition Cuban Architectures: The Third Space will commence with a curatorial guided tour (in English) at 5:00 p.m., which will be followed by a screening of the award-winning documentary Unfinished Spaces, starting at 6 pm.
 
Manuel Copado, Solimar Building, La Habana. © Cuban Heritage Collection, Univ
Posted: 31/July/2023
The exhibition Cuban Architectures: The Third Space explores, through the lens of architecture, the antagonistic context that has characterized Cuba from the decades before the Cuban Revolution to the present day. The exhibition aims to create a Third Space where conflicting ideological narratives can meet and engage in dialogue. By walking through the presented materials, visitors can construct their own interpretations of the complexities of Cuban history and its present.  
 
Stock illustration from Shutterstock.com by Great Pics Worldwide
Posted: 21/July/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentations of the “Visegrad Scholarship at OSA”. Join the event in the Archivum, or online by following the link below! The presentations will be held in the Meeting Room of the Blinken OSA Archivum, and online. at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The link to the Zoom meeting is: https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/91954357162?pwd=cGRQZi9GZ2JpWWQ3eUZUM1NFS2FDdz09
 
Photo: Lenke Szilágyi
Posted: 19/July/2023

On June 28–30, 2023, the Blinken OSA Archivum, together with the CEU Visual Studies Platform, organized and hosted the international workshop RE:FOCUS. Film Heritage Through the De/Post/Anti-Colonial Lenses. The workshop brought together film scholars and professionals from heritage institutions to critically review research directions and course curricula on film heritage. Exploring film studies’ epistemic foundations critically and comparatively, the participants focused on the heuristic value of new methodological paradigms in visual studies. At the center of the debate were critical methodologies’ potential for eliciting new research questions that challenge implicit hierarchies and incorporate non-Eurocentric perspectives.The workshop was accompanied by a series of film screenings and fostered cooperation between teaching institutions and initiatives beyond academia. Full workshop program is available here. The workshop was organized with the support of the CEU Conferences and Academic Events Fund.

 
17 July, 2023: Visegrad Scholarship at OSA Presentation
Posted: 14/July/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentation of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event online! The presentation will be held at 11:00 AM on Monday, July 17, 2023, online.
 
IUFU Summer School panel discussion at the Blinken OSA Archivum
Posted: 05/July/2023
The second IUFU Summer School, taking place in Budapest, July 2–10, 2023, provides Ukrainian students with the opportunity to discuss, with globally renowned scholars, issues like national canon-building, and develop strategies to valorize Ukrainian culture. The summer school also includes the exhibition Unissued Diplomas open to the public at CEU, and a panel discussion at the Blinken OSA Archivum on archival Cold War records on Ukraine.
 
Éva Kapitány Photo Collection @BlinkenOSA
Posted: 30/June/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentations of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event in the Archivum, or online! The presentations will be held at 11:00 CET on Thursday, July 6, 2023, in the Meeting Room of the Blinken OSA Archivum, and online.
 
RE:FOCUS
Posted: 30/June/2023
The workshop brings together film scholars and professionals from heritage institutions to critically review research directions and course curricula on film heritage. Embracing the concept of “epistemic disobedience” (Walter D. Mignolo), Blinken OSA Archivum and Visual Studies Platform at CEU offer a platform to collaboratively explore the heuristic value of new methodological paradigms in film history and visual studies.
 
János Kornai awarded Honorary Doctorate by CEU (HU OSA 203 Records of CEU)
Posted: 29/June/2023
János Kornai was an internationally acclaimed expert of Socialist economies and post-Communist transitions. His collected professional correspondence now donated to the Blinken OSA Archivum, spanning from the 1960s to the 2010s and covering the entire globe from Hungary to the US and to China, will serve as a fundamental resource for economic research and for the future János Kornai Research Institute.
 
Photo credits: Markin Pavel, Photo Archive of the magazine 'Ogoniok' / Kommersan
Posted: 26/June/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentation of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event online by following the link below! The presentation will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, June 26, 2023, online. The Zoom link of the meeting is:https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/99369362814?pwd=ZXgrbG05RFh3NDZYVGU3dkF1V1NzZz09
 
La Habana, © Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gab
Posted: 22/June/2023
Friday, 23 June 2023, 5 p.m. UNFINISHED SPACES Professional program of the exhibition Cuban Architectures: The Third Space Discussion with the architects Choy-León, Film screening of Unfinished Spaces (2011)   During the accompanying professional program of the exhibition Cuban Architects: The Third Space, the Choy-León architects will give a presentation on contemporary Cuban architecture in Spanish (with English translation). After the presentation, the event will be opened up to welcome all participants to a professional reflection and exchange of ideas. The discussion will be followed by a screening of the award-winning documentary Unfinished Spaces, starting at 7pm.
 
Photo: HU OSA 300-1-8 RFE/RL Public Affairs Photographic Files
Posted: 12/June/2023
The call for applications for the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA is now open! Submission deadline for the 2022/2023 academic year: July 25, 2023
 
Night of the Museums 2023
Posted: 11/June/2023
Night of the Museums 2023  - In the exhibition “Cuban Architectures: The Third Space”   We invite our visitors to see the “Cuban Architectures: The Third Space” exhibition and participate in curatorial tours and a Salsa workshop in the evening. Tours of the building in the industrial monument that is the Goldberger House depart every even hour during the night.
 
Artwork by Nergis Canefe
Posted: 11/June/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentation of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event in the Archivum, or online by following the link below! The presentations will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, June 19, 2023, in the Meeting Room of the Blinken OSA Archivum and online. The Zoom link of the meeting is: https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/99887469080?pwd=aWFIb0ZrZ1JjbU5Jekd5K0w0REpKdz09
 
Ion Vianu, psychiatrist and dissident. Surveillance photo taken by the Secret Po
Posted: 11/June/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentation of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event in the Archivum, or online! The presentation will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in the Meeting Room of the Blinken OSA Archivum, and online.
 
Archival Summer School for Ukraine
Posted: 11/June/2023
This week, the Blinken OSA Archivum hosts the Archival Summer School for Ukraine, supported by the ICA-PCOM, the Galt Museum & Archives, and the Blinken OSA Archivum. At presentations, workshops, and discussion, emerging archivists from Ukraine will engage with and get insight from the Blinken OSA Archivum staff and an international team of fellow instructors.
 
Péter Hanák giving a lecture at CEU (HU OSA 305 Records of Black Box Foundation)
Posted: 06/June/2023
The papers of Péter Hanák, historian, founder of CEU’s Department of History, were donated by his family to the Blinken OSA Archivum. His biography, titled Egy különleges közép-európai történész. Hanák Péter pályaképe (A distinct Central European historian. Péter Hanák’s career) will be published by Napvilág Publishing House during the 94th Festive Book Week in Budapest; the author, Péter Csunderlik, did research at the Blinken OSA Archivum.
 
Cold War Archives Research (CWAR) Institute Fellowship
Posted: 30/May/2023
Led by Dr. Victoria Phillips (London School of Economics) and Dr. Charles Kraus (Wilson Center), a group of twelve fellows of the Cold War Archives Research Institute Fellowship begin their week-long research at the Blinken OSA Archivum.
 
Fortepan / Schiffer Pál
Posted: 23/May/2023
June 28-30, 2023, Blinken OSA Archivum, Budapest The workshop invites film scholars and professionals from academic and heritage institutions to critically review research directions and course curricula on film heritage and to question established approaches to knowledge production and epistemic power relations within and towards the visual material. To apply: please send the title and abstract of your presentation (up to 300 words) along with one film suggested for discussion and your CV. Partial travel support is offered to select invited participants. Please indicate in your application letter if you request travel support. Send your application as one file to info@osaarchivum.org (subject: Re: Focus workshop) by May 31, 2023.
 
MTVA – National Photo Archive, Budapest - photo by Adorján Rezső
Posted: 17/May/2023
On March 22, 2023, the exhibition PETŐFI FOR ALL SEASONS: Political Changes in the Petőfi Cult between 1942 and 1956, organized to mark the 200th anniversary of the poet’s birth, will open at the Blinken OSA Archivum, with a discussion entitled Petőfi’s Political Memory from Dualism to the Present Day, which is the first event in a series of programs, PETŐFI MIRAGES, related to the exhibition. From mid-March to the end of May, the Archivum’s program series entitled PETŐFI MIRAGES is not about Petőfi’s life and art, but about the history of Petőfi’s memory and its various aspects. We have been chasing Petőfi’s mirage for 176 years. A series of events, including film screenings, theater performances, readings, and talks, will offer insights into this history. During the event, an exhibition entitled PETŐFI FOR ALL SEASONS in the Archivum’s Galeria Centralis will show the roller-coaster of Petőfi’s political memory from World War II to 1956. The exhibition curators, András Mink, historian, and Katalin Székely, art historian, will give guided tours for groups of students.
 
Historical inscription in Polish, in Brest, Belarus (Stanisław Boridczenko)
Posted: 12/May/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentations of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event in the Archivum, or online! The presentations will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, May 15, 2023, in the Meeting Room of the Blinken OSA Archivum, and online.
 
Conflicting Remembrance: The Memory of the Macedonian 2001 in Context
Posted: 28/April/2023
Examining the memory of the 2001 armed conflict in Macedonia, the volume Conflicting Remembrance includes a chapter by Blinken OSA Archivum Chief Archivist Csaba Szilágyi and former Assistant Archivist Perica Jovchevski.
 
Soviet Memorial, Kerepesi Cemetery, Budapest (Photo: Christine Varga-Harris)
Posted: 28/April/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentations of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event in the Archivum, or online! The presentations will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 11, 2023, in the Meeting Room of the Blinken OSA Archivum, and online.
 
William Newton-Smith (1943–2023)
Posted: 20/April/2023
William Newton-Smith, a Canadian philosopher of science, was one of the founding members and the first Chair of the Senate at the Central European University (CEU), and the Executive Director of the Open Society Foundations’ (OSF) International Higher Education Support Program. The Blinken OSA Archivum preserves the Records of the Office of Bill Newton-Smith, comprising documents related to his activities within both CEU and OSF.
 
WIDF Council meeting in Salzburg, 1965, from “Zhenshchiny mira”
Posted: 20/April/2023
We are happy to announce the next presentations of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA. Join the event in the Archivum, or online! The presentations will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 4, 2023, in the Meeting Room of the Blinken OSA Archivum, and online.