Hungarian Cultural Centre - Programme Brochure Jan-Mar 2013

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Events

JANUARY MARCH

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17 Jan ≥ page 3

• book launch

Mihály Babits literaryevening with MátyásSárközi

22 Jan ≥ page 3

• announcement

National Day of Hungarian Culture

25 Jan ≥ page 4

• children + families

Kodály-based musicsessions for children andtheir families

31 Jan ≥ page 5

• film

The Door (Az ajtó)by István Szabó

4 Feb ≥ page 7

• monday music soirées

Introducing Béla Valkó and Camille Jauvion,chamber music

6 Feb ≥ page 8

• lecture

‘In Search of The Eight’– Talk by Professor Peter Vergo. Magyar Mind – Open Lecture Series

7 Feb ≥ page 9

• book launch

Hungarian islands – anisland in London: the shorthistory of the SzepsiCsombor Literary Circleby Magda Czigány

14 Feb ≥ page 10

• literature

Passio (Passió) by János Pilinszky

22 Feb ≥ page 4



23 Feb ≥ page 12

• education

UK Meeting of Hungarianlanguage educators

2 Mar ≥ page 12

• concert

Vilmos Gryllus – Children’sConcert

2 Mar ≥ page 13

• concert

Vilmos Gryllus – Concertfor adults

4 Mar ≥ page 13

• monday music soirées

István Kassai, piano

5–10 Mar ≥ page 14

• theatre

UK Premier of AndrásVisky’s I killed my mother (Megöltem az anyámat)

11 Mar ≥ page 14

• theatre

András Visky’s I killed mymother – reading anddiscussion with playwrightAndrás Visky

7 Mar ≥ page 16

• literature + exhibition

UK Launch of NinonNeményi’s Londonban, hej…Exhibition of MátyásSárközi’s book illustrations

10 Mar ≥ page 17

• rememberence celebration

Hungarian National Day

13 Mar ≥ page 17

• literature + exhibition

A Journey to Hungary: An Early RepublicanChinese Manuscript – Talk by Imre Galambos

18 Mar ≥ page 18

• lecture

Hungarian Photography – Talk by Colin FordMagyar Mind – Open Lecture Series

22 Mar ≥ page 4



25 Mar ≥ page 20

• film

The Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragédiája)Marcell Jankovics’sanimated feature filmMagyar Mind – Open Lecture Series

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Thursday | 17 January | 7 pm≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e BOOK LAUNCH

Mihály Babits literary evening with Mátyás Sárközi In partnership with the British Hungarian Fellowship

The Hungarian Cultural Centre is proud to host the launch of Mátyás Sárközi’s latestbook about the Hungarian poet Mihály Babits and his life titled Párban magányban(Norán Könyvesház, 2011).

The blurb introduces the book in these sentences: Can we belonely in someone else’s presence? Can it be that we wouldchoose a spouse just because she or he would leave us alone?What personality could endure the other’s desire to be alone?People with these unusual sentiments might be brought togetherby their common desires to escape, to find their own personalitywhile becoming a caring wife and a husband such as the geniusHungarian poet Mihály Babits and his wife Ilona Tanner. By usingdocumentaries, diaries, private letters and poems, Mátyás Sárközihas put together the unique but at the same time everyday life-story of this famous couple. Creating, accepting and playingcertain roles while making compromises is essential in all games.

Mátyás Sárközi is a writer and editor who was awarded theprestigious Attila József prize in 2004. He is the son of GyörgySárközi and Márta Sárközi and grandson of Ferenc Molnár, the world-famous Hungarian dramatist and novelist.

Please note this event will be in Hungarian.Δ Free but booking is required. Please call 020 7240 8448, [email protected] or visit our website www.hungary.org.ukand our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HCCLondon

Tuesday | 22 January

e ANNOUNCEMENT

National Day of Hungarian Culture

On 22 January 1823 Ferenc Kölcsey – one of the most important characters ofHungarian literary history – has completed his manuscript of the Hungarian NationalAnthem. Since 1989 anniversary commemorations give us an occasion to celebrate

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and nurture the Hungarian cultural heritage and national identity within and beyond the Hungarianborders.

In celebration of this special occasion the HungarianCultural Centre announces the Hungarian CulturalAward 2013 to Hungarian community and culturalorganisations based in the UK who work during the year for the preservation and promotion of Hungarianculture and heritage in the UK. The award winner will be announced at the Hungarian Cultural Centre’s Advent family event in December 2013.

In celebration of the National Day of Hungarian Culture,the Hungarian Cultural Centre also invites British poetsto respond to the great Hungarian poet Attila József’spoetry. As part of the “Inspired by Hungarian poetry... – British poets in conversation with Attila József”project, the Hungarian Cultural Centre will invite well-known British poets to take Attila József’s selectedpoems as inspiration to create poems in response to his poetry. Tibor Fischer, British novelist and short storywriter will be on the panel that oversees this greatproject. You can hear these poets and their poems onAttila József’s birthday, on 11 April, which is celebrated as the Day of Poetry in Hungary.

Δ For further information please visit our website www.hungary.org.ukand our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HCCLondon

25 January, 22 February and 22 March | 10.30 am≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e CHILDREN & FAMILIES

Kodály-based music sessions for children and their families

Presented by the Hungarian Cultural Association Guildford

These music sessions are suitable for children as small as 6-month-old. During the session the

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ferenc kölcsey

attila józsef


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parents learn and try out songs andgames they can use at home withtheir children, which will help themdevelop not only their musical skillsbut create a strong bond betweenparents and children.

Maria Chambers and Polla Rashbrook,two highly experienced teachersfrom the Hungarian CulturalAssociation in Guildford lead thesessions. They play music, sing andenchant children and parents withtheir engaging and creative activities.

Δ £6/child/session. To book your place please contact Mária Chambers on 01483 808 643, 07843 054 940 or [email protected]. Further information: www.hungarianculturalgroup.co.uk

Thursday | 31 January | 6.30 pm≥ Auditorium, EBRD ✉ One Exchange Square, London EC2A 2JN

e FILM

The Door (Az ajtó), 2011, 98 min, dir. István Szabó

special guest

Oscar-winning director István Szabó

In partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development theHungarian Cultural Centre proudly presents the second UK screening of Oscar-winningHungarian director István Szabó’s latest masterpiece The Door following on the hugesuccess of the UK premiere screening on 23 November. Director István Szabó willattend the screening and take part in a discussion with Jonathan Charles (BBC).

Oscar-winning István Szabó, best-known for his much acclaimed filmsMephisto (1981), Colonel Redl (1985),Sunshine (1999) and Being Julia (2004),based his most recent film The Door onMagda Szabó’s outstanding novel ofthe same title translated beautifullyinto English by Len Rix.

istván szabó

The Door is starring the wonderfulHelen Mirren, who has recentlygraced in the much acclaimed filmThe Queen, giving one of her bestperformances which has won herthe 2007 Academy Award for BestActress alongside the Golden GlobeAward in the same category, andMartina Gedeck, the very talentedGerman actress who is best knownfor her role in The Lives of Others(2006).

Magda Szabó’s famous novel TheDoor, which has been translatedinto many languages, is a semi-autobiographical novel originallypublished in Hungary in 1987 andtranslated into English in 1995 by Stefan Draughon for Americanpublication, and again in 2005 by Len Rix for British publication. Rix's translation won the 2006Oxford-Weidenfeld TranslationPrize, and was short-listed for theIndependent Foreign Fiction Prize.Magda Szabó (1917–2007) receivedseveral prizes in Hungary and her

works have been published in 42 countries. In 2003 she was the winner of the Frenchliterary prize Prix Femina Étranger for the best foreign novel.

Set in 1960s Hungary, this drama depicts the unusual relationship between two women:a well-to-do novelist (Martina Gedeck) and her poor, elderly maid (Helen Mirren).Director of photography Elemér Ragályi’s trademark ‘quiet and meticulously composedimages’ further enhance the artistic achievement of the film.

The Door has been nominated for the Golden St George award at the Moscow InternationalFilm Festival in 2012, and was also entered in the Istanbul International Film Festival,the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Galway International Film Festival.

István Szabó talks about his career and The Door in an interview he gave to the BBCRadio World Service (The Strand, 3 December 2012) at the time of the UK premierescreening.

Δ Admission is free, but prior email registration via [email protected] is essential. Please note allguests are required to bring a form of ID with them and may be subject to random bag searches.Further information: www.hungary.org.uk and www.ebrd.com

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Monday | 4 February | 7 pm≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e MONDAY MUSIC SOIRÉES

Introducing Béla Valkó and Camille Jauvion, chamber music

It was during their studies at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy of Budapest when CamilleJauvion and Béla Valkó had the first opportunity to play together. Their passion forchamber music and the tangible musical harmony between the two musicians inspiredthem to form a duo.

Camille Jauvion and Béla Valkó had been supported and advised by professors such asFerenc Rados, András Kemenes, Rita Wagner and others. Several festivals invited themto perform, such as the “Spring festival” in Szeged (Hungary), the “Jeudis de Nîmes” inFrance, and the autumn festival “Des arpèges et des mots” in Montferrier (France). Theyfrequently perform in Hungary (mostly in Budapest, but also in Szeged, Sümeg, Gyôr),and in several cities of France.

Camille Jauvion started her music studies at the conservatory of Montpellier, andcontinued in Nîmes with Catherine Silie. Then she moved to Budapest and entered theFerenc Liszt Academy, where she received the tuition of Andras Kemenes, Rita Wagner

and Péter Nagy. She also took advice fromprofessors such as Vladimir Viardo, FerencRados or Edson Elias.

Béla Valkó started his musical studies at anearly age winning national awards when he was10 years old. At the Liszt Ferenc MusicAcademy he was a pupil in György Déri's class.At the same time, he was playing music withmany Hungarian orchestras and he was chosento be a member of the European Union YouthOrchestra as well as of the Schlesswig-HolsteinMusic Festival Orchestra. During his academicstudies he became interested in chamber musicand that directed him towards masters such asJános Rolla, Márta Gulyás and Gábor Csalog.

Béla performed as a soloist with the Symphonical Orchestra of Szeged and Tatabányaand interpreted the cello concertos of Shostakovich, Haydn and Boccherini and heplayed Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. In 2012 he won the Solti Foundation Award,playing on a cello made by Viktor Koos in 2012 specially for him.

Δ Free but booking is required. Please call 020 7240 8448, email [email protected] visit our website www.hungary.org.uk and our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HCCLondon

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Wednesday | 6 February | 6.30 pm≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e LECTURE

‘In Search of The Eight’Talk by Professor Peter Vergo

The Hungarian Cultural Centre’s open lecture series aims to introduce various aspectsof Hungarian art and culture as seen, studied and taught by British experts. The lecturesare open to all and will be regular feature in our 2013 calendar. They cover Hungarianfine art, photography, cinema, architecture, music, natural parks among many others.

This lecture in the series by Professor Peter Vergo explores the work of the group ofHungarian artists who called themselves ‘The Eight’, and who are sometimes describedas ‘Hungarian Fauves’. The members of ‘The Eight’ are Róbert Berény, Dezsô Czigány,

Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstok, Ödön Márffy, DezsôOrbán, Bertalan Pór and Lajos Tihanyi. Profoundlyinfluenced not only by Parisian art but also bycontemporary trends in literature, poetry and music,they were in effect Hungary’s first modernists; yet their important contribution to the development oftwentieth-century European art has, until now, beenlargely ignored by audiences outside of Hungary. In this talk, Professor Vergo will ask the reason for this unjustified neglect, and try to situate their workwithin a wider cultural and historical context.


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MAGYAR MINDOpen Lecture Series


Peter Vergo is Professor of Art History at theUniversity of Essex. His publications include Art inVienna 1898–1918, Kandinsky: Complete Writings onArt and The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection:Twentieth-Century German Painting. His exhibitionVienna 1900 was the centrepiece of the 1983Edinburgh Festival and led to the award of the GoldenOrder of Merit by the Republic of Austria. His latestbook The Music of Painting was published by Phaidonin 2010 and has recently appeared in paperback. Hehas just published a lengthy introductory essay in thecatalogue of an exhibition of the work of ‘The Eight’(Die Acht: Ungarns Highway in die Moderne), shown inVienna at the Kunst-forum Bank Austria in autumn 2012.


Thursday | 7 February | 7 pm≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e BOOK LAUNCH

UK Launch of Magda Czigány’s Hungarian islands – an island in London: the short history of the Szepsi Csombor Literary CircleIn partnership with the British Hungarian Fellowship

The Hungarian Cultural Center is delighted to host the UK launch of Magda Czigány’sbook Hungarian island – an island in London: the short history of the Szepsi CsomborLiterary Circle.

The Szepsi Csombor Literary Circle ,founded in London in 1965 by youngHungarian refugee intellectuals, was anon-political, non-profit makingorganization for the promotion ofHungarian literature abroad. Named afterMárton Szepsi Csombor (1595–1623) who,as a student of theology travelledextensively – mostly on foot – in Europeand wrote the first travel-book of literarymerit in Hungarian (Europica varietas,1620).

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He was an example to students studying Hungarian literature in the soul destroyingyears of Communist rule, when the country was hermetically closed to the West; he was a symbol of freedom, both physical and intellectual.

No wonder that the founders of the Circle, Lóránt Czigány, István Siklós and László Cs.Szabó, all three of them 1956 refugee students in Great Britain, regarded SzepsiCsombor as their forerunner; however, receiving their education and degrees at Britishuniversities and settling down in their new country, they enthusiastically embraced theidea and challenge of “two cultures”: retaining their Hungarian identity while becomingresponsible citizens of the United Kingdom.

From time to time the Circle acted as host to scholars for the discussion of variousaspects of Hungarian literature and provided a forum for Hungarian writers both fromhome and abroad. During its almost 25 years of existence, the Circle organized onehundred meetings in the Polish Hearth Club on a wide range of topics, including accounts of the newly emerging democratic movement in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. The Circle had an open mind and an open door to all views and convictions. It also actedas a publishing house, responsible for two series of books: in the Hungarian series itpublished 16 volumes by Hungarian authors, while in the English series 5 works relatingto Hungary and Hungarian studies in Great Britain.

The publication Szigetmagyarság – londoni magyar sziget: a Szepsi Csombor Kör rövid története, Kortárs PublishingHouse, 2012, (Hungarian islands – an island in London: theshort history of the Szepsi Csombor Literary Circle) byMagda Czigány, the wife of Lóránt Czigány and a participantin all aspects of the Circle’s activities, paints a picture of theendeavour with the insider’s perspective and knowledge.

Please note this event will be in Hungarian.Δ Free but booking is required. Please call 020 7240 8448, email [email protected] visit our website www.hungary.org.uk and our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HCCLondon

Thursday | 14 February | 7 pm≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e LITERATURE

Passio (Passió) by János Pilinszky, translated by György Gömöri and Clive WilmerIn partnership with the British Hungarian Fellowship

János Pilinszky’s poems will be introduced in a reading by Clive Wilmer and GeorgeGömöri at the launch of Clive Wilmer’s New and Collected Poems recently published


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by Carcanet Press. Apart from Clive Wilmer’s own poetry the book contains over fifty translations, including thirty-six from the Hungarian. Clive and George will beintroducing their recently published translations of János Pilinszky’s poems Passio.

‘A new and fascinating Pilinszky’ (Times Literary Supplement)

Clive Wilmer teaches at the University of Cambridge wherehe is Emeritus Fellow in English at Sidney Sussex College andan Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of English. He has writtenand lectured extensively on the work of Ruskin and certain ofhis followers. In particular, he has edited the Penguin editionsof Ruskin’s Unto this Last and Other Writings and WilliamMorris’s News from Nowhere and Other Writings, as well asthe Selected Poems and Translations of Dante GabrielRossetti for Carcanet.

From 1986 to 1990, he was an editor of themagazine Numbers, which he founded with threecolleagues. From 1989 to1992 he presented theBBC Radio 3 programme Poet of the Month; thetranscripts of his interviews were collected inthe book Poets Talking (1994). He is a frequentcontributor – as poet, essayist and reviewer –to a variety of periodicals, notably the TimesLiterary Supplement, The London Magazineand PN Review.

His eighth book of poetry, New andCollected Poems (Carcanet Press),appeared in 2012. With George Gömörihe has translated some twenty Hungarianpoets into English, including books byMiklós Radnóti, György Petri, GeorgeGömöri and, most recently, Passio:Fourteen Poems by János Pilinszky

(Worple, 2011).He was awardedthe Endre Ady Memorial Medal forTranslation in 1998 and the Pro Cultura Hungaricamedal in 2005. Végtelen változatok, a selection of his poems translated into Hungarian by George Gömöri and Anna T. Szabó, was published by JATE Press, Szeged, in 2002.


Saturday | 23 February | 10.30 am≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e EDUCATION

UK Meeting of Hungarian language educators

The Hungarian Cultural Center believes in the importance ofteaching Hungarian as a foreign language, which is carried out in many institutions throughout the United Kingdom – at theUniversity of Westminster, the UCL SSEES, Glasgow University and at numerous Hungarian Saturday schools.

The Hungarian Cultural Centre is delighted to provide an opportunity and forum forteachers of Hungarians to meet and exchange ideas and best practice. Our long-termaim is to help teachers and language researchers to form a professional network andto encourage regular training sessions and professional conferences.


Saturday | 2 March | 11 am≥ HCA Guildford ✉ 83 Portsmouth Road, Guildford, Surrey GU2 4BS

e CONCERT

Vilmos Gryllus – Children’s Concert

Children’s Concert for all ages where you willhave an opportunity to sing with the artist fromhis solo albums Dalok 1–4 and from Maszkabál.Children are invited to wear the costumes oftheir favorite Gryllus songs to the concert, afterwhich there will be an opportunity for trying out some instruments and collectautographs and to buy CDs as well as to take part in some arts and craft activities.

In a career spanning forty years, the musician Vilmos Gryllus has performed both as a soloist and also as a founding member of the group Kaláka, with whom he won theprestigious Kossuth Prize for services to Hungarian culture in 2000. His solo workincludes the composition of songs for children, many of which can now be found inmany school and nursery music books.

Δ Tickets: £8 (in advance, HCA members), £10 (guests), £12 (on the door). For booking and informationplease contact Mária Chambers on 01483 808 643, 07843 054 940 or [email protected]


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Saturday | 2 March | 8 pm≥ HCA Guildford ✉ 83 Portsmouth Road, Guildford, Surrey GU2 4BS

e CONCERT

Vilmos Gryllus – Concert for adults

The Hungarian Cultural Association Guildford in partnership with the HungarianCultural Centre celebrate Hungarian literature and music with Vilmos Gryllus,

performing artist and Patron of the HCA Guildford.

This evening concert for adults features folk songarrangements for guitar and voice, plus settings of verse bysome of Hungary’s most famous poets, including Endre Ady,Mihály Babits, Attila József, Sándor Kányádi, Ágnes NemesNagy and Anna Kiss.

After the concert there will be an opportunity to take partin Hungarian folk dancing and enjoy Hungarian cuisine andwine.

Δ Tickets: £12 (in advance, HCA members), £14 (guests), £16 (on the door). For booking and informationplease contact Mária Chambers on 01483 808 643, 07843 054 940 or [email protected]

Monday | 4 March | 7 pm≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e MONDAY MUSIC SOIRÉES

István Kassai, piano Introduction by Ágnes Kôry

István Kassai graduated as a pianist at the Budapest Academy of Music in 1982 studyingin the class of Pál Kadosa. Then in 1984 he pursued his second diploma in the ConservatoireEuropéen de Musique under the close supervision of the world-famous professorYvonne Lefébure. During and after his studies he also undertook several master courses,such as the one led by György Cziffra, who had a great impact on István’s artisticdevelopment.

During his career, István has won several first prizes in international competitions suchas the International Piano Competition for Young Artists in 1972 in Czechoslovakia,the Piano Competition organised by the Hungarian Radio in 1979, and the ParisInternational Debussy Piano Competition in 1982. Moreover, István’s artistic talent

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was acknowledged by such prestigious awards as the ARTISJUS-Prize in 1976, theBonnaud-Chevillion-Prize of the Fondation de France in 1986, the Nívó Prize of theHungarian Radio in 1990, the Ferenc Liszt Prize in 2001 and the Weiner Leó MemorialPrize in 2010.

István Kassai made several recordings of the complete piano works of Ernest Bloch,Ferenc Erkel, Mihály Mosonyi, Leó Weinerand Jenô Hubay, which was followed by morethan thirty CD releases including works byErnô Dohnányi, Ferenc Liszt, Béla Bartók and Robert Volkmann. At his concerts, heplayed the premieres or the first modernperformances of numerous piano works. The Hungarian Radio has archivedrecordings of his works and performances.

István has published numerous articles andstudies on music and edited many volumes of sheet music by composers and musicianssuch as Liszt, Mosonyi and György Cziffra.Since 1989 he has been one of the foundingmembers of the Ferenc Erkel Society and hewas elected the board member of the Jenô

Hubay Society in 1998. István was always determined to dedicate his artistic career to recording music. He considers his mission to preserve and convey the precious butundisclosed legacy of the Hungarian classical music from the Era of Romanticism andthe turn of the 20th century to today’s audiences.


5–10 March | 7.30 pm (additional matinees on Thur, Sat, Sun at 3 pm)≥ The Rosemary Branch Theatre ✉ 2 Shepperton Road, Islington, London N1 3DT

e THEATRE

summer dialogues productions presents

UK Premier of András Visky’s I killed my mother (Megöltem az anyámat)

Join us for the UK premiere by one of the most original voices of contemporarycontinental theatre, translated, directed and performed by London-based Eastern-European artists at The Rosemary Branch Theatre in Islington.


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András Visky is a poet, playwright and essayist and the resident dramaturg at Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Theatre, Romania, where he also holds the position of associateartistic director. His plays have been staged in several countries including Romania,Hungary, France, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and the United States. He holds a DLA (Doctorof Liberal Arts) from the University of Theatre and Film, Budapest and since 1994 he has lectured at the Babeş-Bolyai University in the Department of Theatre andTelevision. He is one of the co-founders and the former executive director of KoinóniaPublishing.

“Though inspired by the true story of a Romanian orphan, Visky’s play is lessconcerned with ‘Ceausescu’s children’ — the abandoned generation born of a disastrous anti-contraception policy —than the metaphoric orphanhood bindingand dividing everyone. Institutionalneglect becomes a gift, releasing themain character from illusions ofinterdependence and forging her into an emblem of self-reliance. All of us, Godincluded, are ultimately orphans, andthis truth can set us free.” (Brian Nemtusak, Chicago Time Out)

“How can you be not affected by an act of such supreme and protectiveloneliness?” (Ben Brantley, The NewYork Times)

“The play, Dickensian in an Eastern European way, with a fierce, lean poetry, is a vividportrait...” (Heidy Weis, The Chicago Sun Times)

Δ Tickets: £12. 7.30 pm and 3 pm performances all week, for more information please visitwww.rosemarybranch.co.uk. For reservations please email [email protected]

Monday | 11 March | 7 pm ≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e THEATRE

András Visky’s I killed my motherSpecial reading performance and discussion with playwright András Visky


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image by tamás dobos

Thursday | 7 March | 7 pm ≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e LITERATURE, EXHIBITION

UK Launch of Ninon Neményi’s Londonban, hej…(Kortárs Könyvkiadó, 2012)

Exhibition of Mátyás Sárközi’s book illustrations In partnership with the British Hungarian Fellowship

The Hungarian Cultural Centre is delighted to launch NinonNeményi’s new book, which invites the reader to twenty-one intriguing walks in London’s heart away from touristattractions, exploring the hidden gems the capital canoffer. Just like in her book, Ninon Neményi will lead usthrough small little streets while exploring every detail.As we follow her on this journey, her stories unveil thesecrets of the city and evoke hundred-year-old memoriesby taking us to rarely visited museums, tucked-awaystreets and secret gardens. What is interesting about thebook is that the author not only talks about the buildingsof the streets in general, but sheds light on the legend ofevery statue, every ornament. Therefore, we can expecta fascinating evening: we will see London in a new light,through the author’s eyes.

Ninon Neményi has been living in London for morethan fifty years. As a true anglophile, she hascollected her material with the uppermost precisionand devotion. Each chapter is a proper course in thehistory of art and architecture.

At the same time Ninon Neményi will also entertain us with little anecdotes and jokesabout the pubs and houses she has visited on these walks. Ninon Neményi will be ourguide at this special evening where the audience can also explore the exhibition ofMátyás Sárközi’s illustrations of the book.

exhibition open: 7 march – 5 april

opening times: mon–thu 10 am – 5 pm, fri 10 am – 2pm

Please note this event will be in Hungarian.



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Sunday | 10 March | 5 pm≥ Szent István Ház ✉ 62 Little Ealing Lane, London W5 4EA

e REMEMBERENCE CELEBRATION

15 March – Hungarian National Day in Remembrance of 1848/1849

The event is organised by theNational Federation of Hungarians(MAOSZ) to remember theRevolution and the Hungarian Warof Independence of 1848–49, whenprominent political figures andwriters led Hungary to rise againstthe oppressing Habsburg rule.

Wednesday | 13 March | 7 pm ≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e LITERATURE, EXHIBITION

the british hungarian fellowship presents

A Journey to Hungary: An Early Republican Chinese Manuscript Talk by Imre Galambos

Among the recently published travel accounts from the collection of the NationalLibrary of China there is an intriguing manuscript entitled Xiongyali youji, i.e. Record

of a Journey to Hungary. At first sight this text lookedvery promising because it appeared to be an unknownmanuscript of a Chinese person who travelled toHungary sometime during the late 19th or early 20th

centuries. It is written in classical Chinese and describestravelling to different parts of the country, visitingGypsy communities and Slovak villages. Unfortunately,the publication provides only facsimile images of thetext without any information regarding its author ordate. This talk will relate the course of uncovering theorigins of this travelogue and discuss the Chineseperception of Hungary, and the outside world ingeneral, during the early Republican era. This is thefourth lecture in the Oriental Lecture Series startedby the British Hungarian Fellowship three years ago.

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hungarian cowboys at the threshold

of one of the curious cane sheds


Dr Imre Galambos studied Chinese language and literature in China, Hungary and the US. He completed his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley with a dissertation on the orthography of earlyChinese writing. After that, for ten years he worked for the International Dunhuang Project at the British Library,studying medieval Chinese manuscripts and palaeography.His main field of research is Chinese manuscripts but he isalso interested in the history of scholarship in Asian studies.Dr Galambos is currently University Lecturer in Chinese atthe University of Cambridge.


Monday | 18 March | 7 pm ≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA

e LECTURE

Hungarian Photography Talk by Colin Ford

The Hungarian Cultural Centre’s open lectureseries aims to introduce various aspects ofHungarian art and culture as seen, studiedand taught by British experts. The lecturesare open to all and will be regular feature inour 2013 calendar. They cover Hungarian fineart, photography, cinema, architecture, music,natural parks among many others.

‘It’s not enough to have talent, you also haveto be Hungarian.’ These words of RobertCapa may have been said partly as a joke,but they have more than a germ of truth inthem. For what we now think of as a small nation, Hungary has produced a surprisinglyhigh number of internationally known photographers. As long ago as 1931, the Britishjournal Modern Photography’s list of ‘The World’s Hundred Best Photographs’ includedeight names from Hungary, more than from any other nation – among them Kertész,Moholy-Nagy and Munkácsi. In our own time, the distinguished American journalistand picture editor John G. Morris has written that photography is a ‘vocation thatseems to come naturally to Hungarians’. (‘Photography: Hungary’s Greatest Export?’ by Colin Ford in the Eyewitness exhibition catalogue)

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andré kertész – satiric dancer, paris 1926



At this open lecture on Hungarian photography we have the privilege to welcome Colin Ford, who is a distinguished photography curator and is the founding director of the National Museum of Photography Film & Television in Bradford (now TheNational Media Museum). Colin Ford was the curator of the highly acclaimedEyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century – Brassaï, Capa, Kertész,Moholy-Nagy, Munkácsi photo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2011. He has written more than a dozen books on historic photographers – among them Julia Margaret Cameron, “Lewis Carroll”, D. O. Hill & Robert Adamson and AndréKertész – and has mounted many exhibitions.


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jános szász – holiday, c. 1973

andré kertész – underwater swimmer, 1917


Monday | 25 March | 6 pm≥ Ciné Lumière, Institut français ✉ 17 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2DT

e FILM

uk premiere screening

The Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragédiája, 2011)Marcell Jankovics’s animated feature film (159 min)

Introduction by Dr Gergely Bakos OSB, Sapientia College of Theology, Budapest Q&A after the screening with Marcell Jankovics

The Hungarian Cultural Centre proudly presents the UK premiere of the featureanimation The Tragedy of Man written and directed by Marcell Jankovics and anintroduction by Dr Gergely Bakos OSB on the philosophical and theological aspects of the film and the drama it is based on: Imre Madách’s outstanding work of the same title from 1862.

Imre Madách’s play has beentranslated into 90 languagesand is one of the great worksof Hungarian literature. The action takes place overthe course of one very longdream, as Adam, Eve andLucifer visit the world’s greatcivilizations at the height of their power, only to watchas humanity’s noblest hopesand dreams come to naught.

If anyone could have anyclaims on adapting Hungary’sbest-known drama into afeature-length animated film,it is Marcell Jankovics,Hungary’s best-known livinganimator. In 1976 his film“Sisyphus,” a short-formmasterpiece about thedoomed, boulder-pushingking, was among the nomineesfor an Academy Award; thenext year his “Küzdôk” (“TheStruggle”) won the Palme d’Or for short film at Cannes.

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By the time Marcell Jankovicsfirst started working on“Tragedy,” in 1983, he had alreadydirected two full-length films:“János Vitéz,” Hungary’s firstanimated feature, and“Fehérlófia,” which stars a horse-suckled hero, his two brothersand a combative hobgoblin wholoves to eat piping-hot porridgeatop the bellies of his defeatedenemies. Production began in 1988, at the tail end of what is now considered the golden age of Hungarian animation.

Filmmaking in Hungary was a state-run affair, and the Pannonia Film Studio financedby the government, had become a mecca for many of the top animators, includingMarcell Jankovics. A year later the government fell, forcing artists and directors tofind other means of financing.

Marcell Jankovics worked a section at a time, startingwith the shortest scene, in which Adam transformsinto a giant robotic spaceship as he and Lucifer hurtlethrough the cosmos. As soon as one section wasfinished, he’d go about raising money for the next,applying for small grants from organizations like theHungarian Motion Picture Foundation. In themeantime he wrote several books on art andmythology, directed films and television series, andserved as president of the Hungarian Cultural Society.

The film crews he led as the “Tragedy of Man” director and writer changedsubstantially over the years, with animators retiring or dying. “The voice of God andLucifer remained through the whole production,” Marcell Jankovics said. “But Adamand Eve grew old, so younger actors were brought in.”

“Tragedy” has now played throughout Hungary, where it has been praised by critics, as well as at festivals in Russia, Serbia and the Czech Republic. The film has beenscreened at festivals in Poland, Portugal, Armenia and Canada, in addition to itsAmerican premiere.

“It’s a monumental, gigantic opus that Marcell Jankovics created, the film he waspreparing for his entire life.”(Robert Ito, The New York Times, 9 November 2012)


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hcc recommends

Monday, 28 January ≥ Europe House, 32 Smith Square,London, SW1P 3EU

In association with Spiro ArkI lived on this Earth... HungarianPoets on the Holocaust A reading by George Gömöri andClive WilmerMusic by Marianne Olyver (violin)and Robert Schuck (piano)

A moving evening devoted to ananthology on the Holocaust thatcomprises a selection of work byeighteen Hungarian poets fromthree generations including suchgreat poets as Radnóti andPilinszky.

o The anthology can be orderedfrom [email protected]

Thursday, 7 February, 8 pm(doors open at 6.45 pm)≥ Camden Centre, Euston Road, WC1H 9JE

stage in london presents

BeugróImprovisative Theatre withpresenter Péter Novák and actorsLia Pokorny, Péter Kálloy Molnár,Gyôzô Szabó, Péter Rudolf.

o www.stageinlondon.com

Hungarians in the North of England (Észak-angliai magyarok) offer regularcommunity and cultural events.

o Further information:www.facebook.com/groups/eszakangliaimagyarprogramok

oxford hungarian society

hilary term 2013 programme

all meetings, except the one on

february 22, will be held in the

harris seminar room, oriel college

Friday, 18 January, 8 pmAndrás Kappanyos Ulysses revisitedJames Joyce’s masterpiece in new Hungarian translation

Friday, 25 January, 8 pmSocial evening with drinks and nibblesThose who wish can go on to the Mitre pub afterwards

Friday, 1 February, 8 pmEndre László What Computer Sciences can dofor Other DisciplinesA brief overview of recent results

Friday, 8 February, 8 pmNóra Veszprémi,curator at the Hungarian NationalGallery, and Junior Fellow of theOxford Cantemir Institute Tales of Terror, Gothic Imagery in Hungarian Romantic Art, 1820–1860

Friday, 15 February, 8 pmSándor Váci,architect and private researcher A Great Anglophile: CountSzéchenyi and his Diary

Friday, 22 February, 8 pm≥ Harris Theatre, Oriel College

Film: Adrienne Pál (2010)Directed by Ágnes Kovács

Friday, 1 March, 8 pmBea Nándori,member of the Oxford BranchCommittee of the NationalChildbirth Trust Homebirth in Britain and Hungary

o www.hungsoc.com

hungarian cultural

association’s programme

12, 26 January, 9, 23 February,2, 16 March≥ Guildford United ReformedChurch, 83 Portsmouth Road,Guildford, Surrey GU2 4BS

Hungarian cultural sessions including Hungarian language,music, dance and craft for childrenaged 0–18 years old.

7, 21 January, 4, 25 February,4, 18 March≥ St Thomas of CanterburyPrimary School, Guildford, Surrey

Hungarian folk dance for adults

o For further information pleasecontact Mária Chambers on 01483 808 643 or 07843 054 940

The HCC team:

Dr Beata Pászthy PhD | Cultural and Scientific Counsellor – DirectorCsilla Szentesi | Head of Programming and Communications Fruzsina Kováts | Finance ManagerGyöngyi Végh | Programming and Communications Manager Dóra Havasi | Programme CoordinatorAndrea Kós | Office ManagerBalázs Szaszák | IT Consultant

The information in this brochure is believed to be correct at the time of going to press, but as this may be three months or more before the events take place, we strongly advise you to confirm dates,times and availability on our website and Facebook page before setting out for any particular event. The HCC reserves the right to alter artists or programme details as necessary.

Balassi Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre London10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NATel: 020 7240 8448 • Fax: 020 7240 4847 • Message: 020 7240 6162E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]

If you wish to receive more information about our upcoming events and sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website www.hungary.org.uk.Alternatively, find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/hcclondon and Twitter @HCCLondon. Thank you for your interest.

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www.hungary.org.uk@

10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden

London WC2E 7NA

Tel: 020 7240 8448

Fax: 020 7240 4847

Voicemail: 020 7240 6162

www.hungary.org.uk

Documents

Hungarian Cultural Centre - Programme Brochure Jan-Mar 2013