FACTS FOR REAL: COLLECTIONS AND COMMUNITIES
THE FIRST COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS EXHIBITION OF THE BLINKEN OSA ARCHIVUM
June 21–August 25, 2024
Blinken OSA Archivum | Galeria Centralis | Arany János utca 32, 1051 Budapest
Exhibition opening:
June 21, 2024, Friday, 6:00 p.m.
Opening remarks by
RÉV István, Director, Blinken OSA Archivum
Opening speeches by
TRENCSÉNYI Balázs, Director, Institute of Advanced Study, CEU
HANZLI Péter, Program Director, Háttér Archive and Library
SZILÁGYI Csaba, Chief Archivist, Blinken OSA Archivum
The Blinken OSA Archivum, currently updating its public image with a new logo, website, and catalog, launched a research-based program to continuously (re)contextualize its documents and themes. This initiative exemplifies “collective curating” and “community archives” through its community-driven research and exhibition project, Facts for Real: Collections and Communities. The exhibition is the first to showcase a carefully selected collection of items from the Archivum’s versatile holdings, creating a web of interconnected stories that cover the main historical events as well as private histories of the Cold War era and its aftermath.
The exhibition at the Galeria Centralis of the Archivum presents previously unseen materials from the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute’s collection, such as the correspondence of the popular music program of the Hungarian station, Teenager Party, as well as photos depicting the inner workings of the Radios. Samizdat materials, such as György Dalos’s novel, 1985, are on display, with the original illustrations made by László Rajk. The exhibit also includes numerous materials from our extensive audiovisual collection, such as videos documenting the major events of the Hungarian regime change made by the Fekete Doboz Foundation, and the home movies of the Private Photo and Film Foundation offering insiders’ perspectives of personal lives in Hungary throughout almost the entire 20th century. The materials relating to major historical events are complemented with more down-to-earth, personal narratives, such as the letters sent to the Radio Liberty from the Soviet Union, or a selection of the drawings by Gertrud Bortstieber, the wife of philosopher György Lukács, included to the letters sent to her family from the post-1956 exile in Romania, on public view for the first time.
curated by
Blinken OSA Archivum
co-curators
KÓCZÉ Angéla, CEU Romani Studies Program