Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Press Room
Public talk and presentation of a new film by Alexander Markov
Introduced and moderated by Oksana Sarkisova
Found-footage Propaganda: Introduction to "Our Africa" Series
DATE: MAY 10, 2017, AT 6:00 P.M.
VENUE: BLINKEN OSA ARCHIVUM, ARANY JÁNOS UTCA 32.
1ST FLOOR, RESEARCH ROOM
Soviet documentaries of the 1960s responded to changing boundaries of ideological control during the so-called “Thaw” period. Many of the Soviet filmmakers worked and filmed in various “socialist-friendly” countries in Africa and their footage shows a genuine curiosity about the “otherness” of African reality. My film does not aim at duplicating the official propaganda discourse; my idea is to deepen the poignancy of Soviet newsreels and documentary films by exposing the propaganda clichés and by offering a new way of seeing them by exposing and highlighting their message. My review offers a fast-paced survey of the entire corpus of Soviet films about Africa in which I identify the most important and frequently recurring themes and motifs. In the process of this research, I trace how Soviet views of Africa evolved over three decades, and later sank into oblivion.
Shooting the Revolution Film Series at OSA – Animated Soviet Propaganda 2
Wednesday, 3 May 2017 at 6 PM
ANIMATED SOVIET PROPAGANDA 2
Book Launch - Oksana Sarkisova: Screening Soviet Nationalities: Kulturfilms from the Far North to Central Asia
Date: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 - 5:30pm
The Blinken Open Society Archives and the Visual Studies Platform at CEU cordially invite you to the book launch and discussion of:
Screening Soviet Nationalities: Kulturfilms from the Far North to Central Asia by Oksana Sarkisova
Participants:
Mária M. Kovács (Nationalism Studies Program, CEU) / Chair
Mark Bassin (School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörns University)
Alfred Rieber (Professor Emeritus, History Department, CEU)
Oksana Sarkisova (Blinken OSA Archivum, CEU)
Charles Shaw (History Department, CEU)
Marsha Siefert (Department of History, CEU)
Photofilm | New Ways of Thinking Film by Gustav Hamos
Date:
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 5:30pm
Photographs placed in a cinematic context create a filmic experience. In photofilms, the film medium is dissected into its components. Photofilm authors experiment with the relationship of text, sound and image, reflecting on the composition of the cinematographic. They let us “think” cinema. If a film image stops, the illusion of movement is shattered in that moment and irritation arises, we are invited to contemplate, interpret the image as a concept, participate in the author's study of images, and to be inspired by the imaginary extensions of meaning. Photofilms demand active, thinking viewers. Having photographs placed next to each other in a sequence provokes the viewer to search for connections and interpretations. Inspired by Roland Barthes' “The Third Meaning” it may be said that the future of the filmic is not strictly in movement, but rather in a third meaning, a framework for the unfolding of permutations that make a new theory of the photogram conceivable.
www.hamos.info /// www.potentialspace.de
A 'food for thought' selection from the 13th Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival's repertoire.
March 23, 6p.m.
THE ROAD
Zhang Zanbo / 2015 / China & Denmark / 95 min / Chinese / English subtitles
The film was screened in the International Panorama section at 13th Verzio Film Festival.
The film was screened in the International Panorama section at 13th Verzio Film Festival.
In 2008, the Chinese government decided to invest 586 billion USD on infrastructure in an effort to stimulate the economy. Filmmaker Zhang Zanbo got unprecedented access to the implementation of the financial plan and for three years he filmed the making of a section of a highway through a quiet village in Hunan, the province where Chairman Mao was born. The film follows local villagers and peasants that are forced to move due to land acquisition. The management of the construction company want their share of the financial apple. As a consequence corruption and violence has become a common part of the making of the road. Nevertheless, the Xu-Huai Highway was opened with great fanfare in 2013.
SHOOTING THE REVOLUTION FILM SERIES
16 March 2017 at 6 PM
SOVIET PROPAGANDA ANIMATION 1
The first screening in a 2-part program of Soviet propaganda animation offers an insight into the ways of creatively packaging Bolshevik ideology, implemented with a variety of animation techniques. The work of early Soviet visual artists demonstrates how irony, satire, grotesque, caricature, and a streamlined language of political propaganda are put to the service of the new regime, ridiculing and threatening the world bourgeoisie, claiming the moral superiority over capitalism, mocking the vices of the imperial past, and envisioning a bright internationalist and interplanetary future. Nikolai Khodataev, Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Yuri Merkulov, Zenon Kimissarenko, Dziga Vertov, and others are among the pioneers of political animation, which foregrounded rather than masked its agitational message.
The screening is introduced by Dr. Oksana Sarkisova (Blinken OSA)
Free admission Limited seats are available on a first come first served basis.
Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives I 1051 Budapest, Arany János utca 32.
March 9, 6pm, Blinken OSA Archive
WHERE TO, MISS?
Manuela Bastian / 2015 / Germany / 83 min / Hindi & English
The film received Special Mention in the ZOOM IN Student Film Competition at 13th Verzio Film Festival.
Devki finds herself in a continuous conflict between her wish to be emancipated and the deeply rooted traditions of Indian society. Her biggest wish is to become a taxi driver. She would like to ensure that other women reach home safely and would like to be financially independent. On the road to achieving her goal, she must withstand the opposition of her father, then her husband and in the end her father-in-law. Her daily routine is defined by the constant battle to defend her aspirations and attempting to pave a way for her to achieve her dreams without alienating her family.
TINY LITTLE DELICATE FOREIGN CASTLES
Rob Key / 2014 / Portugal / 11 min / Portuguese & English / English subtitles
The film received Special Mention in the ZOOM IN Student Film Competition at 13th Verzio Film Festival.
A camera is a dangerous weapon. When it appears in the vicinity of a guarded object or a building, even in a public space, all rational arguments become useless as it is straightforwardly understood as a plausible threat. Yet, no one really knows what's going on. The filmmaker attempts to film embassies in Lisbon from the streets, provoking a range of reactions – mild to aggressive – from the security guards. The simple and straightforward idea for the film brings out an effective message, making the idea of boundaries in public spaces palpably visible.
Kreatív workshop diákoknak
Csillagos ötös - A szocialista művészet jelképei // 2017.03. 10. és 13-án // Blinken OSA Archívum //
A program célja: A Blinken OSA Archívum A szocialista művészet jelképei című kiállításához kapcsolódó kreatív diákprogramot szervez, melynek célja a szocializmus jelképeinek feltérképezése, politikai és művészeti alkalmazásuknak a megismerése, valamint annak vizsgálata, hogy mit jelentenek e szimbólumok az új generációk számára.
A workshop kitűnő lehetőség a diákok történelmi és művészeti ismereteinek gazdagítására.
A végén mindenkinek kijár a csillagos ötös, ez a minimumJ
A foglalkozásokat vezetik:
Hemrik László, múzeumpedagógus
Dabi-Farkas Rita, képzőművész
Salgó Viktória, múzeumpedagógus
Szira Henrietta, képzőművész
……………
Időpontok:
Március 10. péntek 9:00 / 11:00 / 14:00 (2 órás blokkokban, csoportonként max. 30 fő)
Március 13. hétfő 9:00 / 11:00 / 14:00 (2 órás blokkokban, csoportonként max. 30 fő)
A limitált létszám miatt korai jelentkezés javasolt! Regisztráció érkezési sorrendben.
Kérjük, pontosan adják meg az iskola nevét, a létszámot, a kiválasztott időpontot és a tanár elérhetőségét (telefonszám).
A részvétel ingyenes. Jelentkezési határidő: 2017. március 7. kedd
Helyszín: OSA Archívum, 1051 Budapest, Arany János utca 32.
Bővebb információ és regisztráció: Kövecsi Anikó / +361 327-3250 / kovecsia@ceu.edu
VERNISSAGE 2017. February 2., 18:00
Opening remarks by
Iván Székely Blinken OSA Archívum
József Mélyi, art historian
The “sickle and hammer”, or the “red star” are still well-known Communist symbols, but how can we read other images, like “Sun”, or “book” in the context of Communist imagery? In 1974, art historian Nóra Aradi, the omnipotent guardian of Socialist Realism in Hungary, published a book entitled The Symbols of Socialist Art. Her aim was to collect the different meanings and usages of the symbols and icons of “Socialist Art”, thus providing a useful handbook both to the artists and to the audience. Her visual dictionary is a unique document of Socialist and Communist imagery that, a quarter century after the fall of Communism, may also serve as a visual aid, a tool in translating the past to newer generations who were born after 1989.
This communist Iconologia, similar to Cesare Ripa’s path-breaking work from the 17th century, goes far beyond a simple visual dictionary: it also preserves the world-view – in the most literal sense – of the era. With the help of contemporary artists from the Central and Eastern European region, the exhibition The Symbols of Socialist Art explores and critically re-evaluates this visual dictionary, while also investigating the role of its author in the making of the art history of the 2nd half of the 20th century in Hungary.
Invited artists:
Erik Janeček/ APART Collective (SK), Adela Babanova (CZ), Anna Baumbart (PL), Fokus Grupa (CR), Galántai György (HU), Little Warsaw (HU), Jan Pfeiffer (CZ), Randomroutines (HU), Katarina Šević (HU), Société Réaliste (HU/FR), Szalay Péter (HU)
Curated by Katalin Székely
Curator of the section “Nóra Aradi”: József Mélyi
Curator and research assistant: Csaba Gál
The exhibition runs: February 2 – March 19 2017
Jan Pfeiffer: Předtím, než jsem tam byl / Before I Was There, 2008
animation film, 4’40’’
FILM SCREENING AND DISCUSSION
PATRIA NOSTRA - Minor Hungarian refugees in 1956 in the French Foreign Legion.
89 min. in Hungarian and French with English subtitles
28 February 2017
6:00 p.m.
The screening is accompanied by a discussion with the author and film director Béla Nóvé (Historian) and András Mink, (Historian, Blinken OSA Archivum)
Blinken OSA Archivum / Galeria Centralis - 1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.
Free admission | Limited seats available on a first-come first-served basis
There were some 500 teenage Hungarians who fought against the Soviet tanks in 1956, and a few years later joined the French Foreign Legion – only to be sent to fight in the Algerian war. Thus they were involved in two of the most heated conflicts of the Cold War period, and both times they were on „the losing side”.
Very little is known about their subsequent fate. After a long search we were lucky enough to locate some survivers in Corsica and Provence. Since most of them were denied re-entry to their homeland – some until as late as 1990 –, they continued to serve in the Legion for 20 or 30 years in such far-away places as Algeria, Corsica, Madagascar, Tahiti, Chad, Djibouti and French Guiana.
No wonder that they are still fighting now – at least in their hearts – , feeling obliged to redefine their loyalty to their native land (Hungary) and their host country (France). And of course to the Legion itself, which offered them a sort of ’asylum’ or ’homeland’ for so many years. The motto says it all: ’Légion Patria Nostra’.
A 'food for thought' selection from the 13th Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival's repertoire.
February 6 - March 29, 2017
People are seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Come in time!
FREE ADMISSION
LOCATION INFO
Bem Cinema - Budapest, Margit krt. 5, 1027
Blinken OSA Archive - Budapest, Arany János u. 32, 1051
Gólya - Budapest, Bókay János u. 34, 1083
SHOOTING THE REVOLUTION FILM SERIES
22 February 2017
6:30 pm
Dziga Vertov, A Sixth Part of the World (1926)
73 min
In Russian with English subtitles
The screening is introduced by Dr. Oksana Sarkisova (Blinken OSA)
Free admission | Limited seats are available on a first-come first-served basis
Dziga Vertov, A Sixth Part of the World (1926)
73 min
Vertov’s spatially most ambitious film, A Sixth Part of the World was commissioned by the State Trade monopoly, but turned out to be far more than a mere run-of-the-mill promotion film. This cine-race across the Soviet universe stretches eastwards, northwards, and southwards and creates a highly ambiguous image of a “union of borderlands.” The film is both a visual experiment with ways of representing a new form of supra-ethnic unity and a novel form of travelogue. It earned Vertov not only high praise as a “cine-poet” but also vilification as an “exoticism-hunter.” Sixth Part of the World unfolds in six loosely connected parts, each with a different focus. Its pioneering structure and visual language ensured heightened attention to the film at the time of its release – as well as a short distribution life. It was called at once monumental, epic, and a lyrical vision of the Soviet Union.
Re Verzio 2017
February 16, 6pm, Blinken OSA Archive
MY OWN PRIVATE WAR
Lidija Zelović / 2015 / The Netherlands / 57min / English & Dutch & Serbian & Croatian / English subtitles
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqsQKzpJZ-w
The film was screened in the International Panorama section at 13th Verzio Film Festival.
Born into an ethnically mixed family, Lidija Zelović grew up in Sarajevo where she started to work as a TV reporter. In the early 1990s, she fled from the Balkan civil war to the Netherlands but she later returned to report as a TV journalist from her home country. Now she returns on a personal quest to settle an account with the country where she was born. What awaits her twenty years on is a war that is still going on in the minds of the people. With mounting frustration, Zelović is confronted with old hatred and new nationalist aggression – and discovers that her family's role as victims wasn't fully accurate.
15 February 2017
6:30 pm
LENINLAND (2013)
Directed by Askold Kurov, 52 min.
In Russian with English subtitles
The screening is introduced by Dr. Oksana Sarkisova (Blinken OSA)
Free admission | Limited seats are available on a first come first serve basis
In the USSR, the cult of Lenin had replaced the Orthodox religion that Communists wanted to eliminate. At the end of Soviet era, in the village Gorky, 20 kilometers from Moscow, the last and the most ambitious Museum of Lenin was built. In former days it had 3000 visitors per week, now it’s only 20. Today it looks like a temple of forgotten civilization, a place that has fallen out of time. But faithful to the ideas of Lenin the keepers of the museum remain. They wait for random visitors in the abandoned halls – and for the return of former times.
The story of the museum is shown through the two main characters Evgenia and Natalya, the caretakers of the museum. Natalya is 52 years old, a history teacher at the local school, fond of the Communism ideology, she really loves and respects Lenin. She likes the place where she works. 56 years old Evgenia is a scientific researcher. She’s also a hard-core new-age believer; she worships all sorts of gods, and considers Lenin one of the biggest among them. But after 10 years of dedicated work in the museum, she now wants to leave it and continue her spiritual journey in another place.
Described by the director as “the first embryonic step towards a totally new form of film expression,” October was and remains a film of multiple challenges. It is the last installment of Eisenstein’s historical-revolutionary film epic, which began with the films Strike (1924) and Battleship Potemkin (1925). After the international success of Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein was commissioned to create a film celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The director used the occasion to experiment with new ways of editing, which he conceived as intellectual montage, as well as to construct a new authoritative account of recent history by presenting a dramatic and dramatized chronicle of the events leading up to and during the October Revolution. While his version of history was ultimately rejected by the commissioning authorities and the film underwent multiple reediting, it remains an important milestone in film history as well as an early lesson in cinematic memory politics.
This screening is the first event in the SHOOTING THE REVOLUTION film series that is part of the WHAT’S LEFT program series organized by the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, which aims to revisit the complex socialist ideological and visual legacy in the year marked by the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Wednesday, January 25, 6pm
The screening is introduced by Dr. Oksana Sarkisova (Blinken OSA)
kick-OFF: Learning from Poland, Part 1.
Discussing strategies and models of cultural operations that respond to the current political challenges get a strong focus within the upcoming kick-OFF series, a series of discursive events leading up to the 2nd edition of the OFF-Biennale Budapest. In the next kick-OFF event, three art professionals with various background will discuss through specific art projects the changing conditions of artistic production and exhibition making in Poland.
The event will be moderated by Lívia Páldi, member of OFF-Biennale Budapest’s curatorial team.
The event will take place on the 5th of December from 6 PM to 8 PM
Venue: the Research Room of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives. (1st floor)
Address: 1051 Budapest, Arany J. Street 32.
The language of the presentations and discussion will be English.
The event is part of the kick-OFF series of the second edition of the OFF-Biennale Budapest.
Supported by the The Adam Mickiewicz InstituteWarsaw and the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, Budapest. Special thanks to Anna Szylar.
MY DIARY – YOUR NEWS
Daniela Comani: It was me. My Diary 1900–1999 in the Context of the 1956 Revolution in the Western World
October 19 – November 27, 2016
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Goethe-Institut Budapest, in cooperation with the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, presents MY DIARY – YOUR NEWS. It was a deliberate decision to present the exhibition with a perspective that looks back at the days of the revolution from the outside. On one hand in time: the Berlin based Artist, Daniela Comani’s large size art installation entitled It was me depicts the whole of the 20th century through 365 entries of an imaginary diary, while constantly forcing the viewer to take the position of the principal actor. On the other hand we position ourselves outside Hungary to reflect upon the events of 60 years ago. How did the media in other capitals react to the events unfolding in Hungary? Alongside Daniela Comani’s installation, items from OSA’s own collections of newspaper clippings, photos and newsreels document the intensity of reactions all over the world, from Reykjavík to Buenos Aires.
VERNISSAGE: October 19, 2016, 6:30 p.m.
My 20th Century
In connection to the exhibition My Diary – Your News the Blinken Open Society Archives present Ildikó Enyedi’s Cannes award winning film. The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q & A with Ildikó Enyedi, director and scriptwriter.
On the last night of the 19th century, two ladies are travelling on Orient Express. Dóra, a high society swindler, sits in the 1st class compartment, while Lili, a committed anarchist, in a 3rd class one. They are twins, but don’t know each other as they got orphaned and separated decades ago. Z., a ‘run-away aristocrat’ falls in love with both of them, and composes ‘the ideal woman’ by forging the two into one.
dir.: Ildikó Enyedi / fiction film / Hungarian with English subtitles / 1989 / 99 min
Public Lecture by Anne J. Gililand
Thursday, November 17, 2016 | 5 PM
Of all the information and memory professions, the archival field is the one that is most integrally responsible for the long-term preservation of and access to records and other forms of documentation, which are especially instrumental in the lives of people who have found themselves forced to leave their homes and homelands because of oppression, expulsion, war, natural disaster or economic exigency.
Stabat Mater for the Victims and Refugees of 1956
The Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, who died at a tragically young age, will be performed on the 60th anniversary of the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian revolution to commemorate the thousands who died or were wounded and the hundreds of thousands who were forced into exile..
Date and time: November 4, 2016, 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Vera and Donald Blinken Archives, 1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.
Éva Bodrogi – soprano
Judit Rajk – alto
OStrings kvartett
Boglárka György, Elvira Vučurević – violin
Péter Bor – viola
János Madaras – violoncello
and
Noémi Konta – basso continuo
The OSingers Choir: Luca Dudinszky, Virág Farkas, Bettina Hacknauer, Emire Ibrahim,
Anna Juniki, Žeigure Nora, Emese Szabó, Roberta Szklenár, Viola Thurnay, Bernadett Vida, Júlia Viszkeleti
Conductor: Paul Marsovszky