Rural–Urban Relations / József Mélyi & László Hevesi
Statue March - The Afterlives of János Szántó Kovács
Pay what you can - select the ticket price of your choice:
3.600 HUF / 4.900 HUF / 5.900 HUF
Trafó pass valid.
Ticket includes the 8pm concert of Care Center (Éva Bárdits & Márton Bertók).
For this focus, we are introducing a "Pay What You Can" system with 3 different price categories. Based on your financial situation, you can choose the price that best fits your current budget.
#powertothepeople #agrariansocialism #learningfromhistory
Lecture performance with elements of prose, poetry, music and dance that traces the history and the afterlives of an almost forgotten social movement: agrarian socialism in Hungary. Only in Hungarian!
The lecture performance offers a unique perspective on the historical and cultural transformations of Hungary over the past century and a half. The starting point and focus of this historical narrative is János Szántó Kovács, a key figure of the late 19th century agrarian socialist movement.
Composed of prose, poetry, music, and dance, the lecture performance traces the historical transformations from Szántó Kovács’s imprisonment to the rise of his cult and his appropriation for political purposes and the subsequent partial collective amnesia that followed the regime change. The seven-part overview is accompanied by songs that arose "from the lips of the people," as well as photographs and film clips, including documentary footage of the events and scenes from Miklós Jancsó's film Red Psalm. A significant role is played by the statue of Szántó Kovács created by the sculptor József Somogyi, erected in Hódmezővásárhely in 1965 and transported to Amsterdam for an exhibition by the Little Warsaw artist duo in 2004.
József Mélyi (1967)
Art historian, art critic, curator, and head of the Department of Art Theory at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Since the mid-1990s, he has been publishing essays and reviews in Hungarian academic journals. His main areas of research are 20th-century and contemporary art, public art, and institutional critique. In recent years, he has contributed to the creation of numerous performative works, including as a screenwriter and performer.
László Hevesi (1995)
Actor and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pécs. He graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE) in 2019 from the class of Sándor Zsótér and Enikő Börcsök. In his doctoral research, he examines the theatrical representation of religious and ethnic prejudices through the character of Shylock (The Merchant of Venice). He grew up in Báránd, in the Sárrét region, where he learned to play the zither and folk dance, and participated in local history and folklore preservation projects. He previously collaborated with József Mélyi on the performance The Confrontation ’68, presented at the Centrális Gallery in 2018 and on the lecture performance Hey, Our Flag, organized by Trafó Gallery in 2020.
Created and performed by: József Mélyi, László Hevesi
Image credits:
Image in header: LITTLE WARSAW: INSTAURATIO! - Monument contra Cathedral, 2004. copyright © Little Warsaw
Portré Mélyi Józsefről, photo: Julianna Nyíri
Portré Hevesi Lászlóról, photo: Dorina László
Plusz kép: Statue of János Szántó Kovács (József Somogyi, 1965). Source: Fortepan. Photo donated by: Főfotó. Hódmezővásárhely, 1967.
