The documents of Cultural Forum and Counter-Forum Budapest 1985

The documents of the Cultural Forum and Counter-Forum of Budapest in late 1985 reflected on the major changes which had just begun at the time in East-West relations, politics, and diplomacy, together with the challenging concept of cultural freedom as a basic part of human rights. For the official Forum, some 850 participants were accredited to Budapest, thus the city was home for six weeks to a legion of diplomats and experts. However, instead of the protocol-like program of the official Forum, the real novelty which caught the attention of the world, the samizdat press, the Western public, and dissidents from the East (not to mention the Hungarian secret police, who were busier than ever) was an open dispute among writers and intellectuals from both East and West that was held at a poet’s flat and then at a film director’s apartment, and which lasted three days. The rich and versatile sub-collection contains many exciting documents which are of potential interest both to Hungarian and international visitors.

The documents of SZETA - Hungarian dissidents' Fund for Aiding the Poor

The Fund for Aiding the Poor (SZETA) was a unique endeavor of the Hungarian democratic opposition involving counter-cultural initiatives in the fields of art and literature and a heightened social awareness for those in need. The original documents of SZETA have survived to our day only in part, and are scattered across private collections. Therefore an almost complete documentary collection of SZETA could be composed only virtually as of yet, with items from the relevant holdings of the Blinken-OSA Open Society Archives, Budapest, the secret police files of the Historical Archives of the State Security Services (ÁBTL), Budapest, and Gabriella Lengyel's online collection, together with some private papers of Gábor Havas, Bálint Nagy, Ferenc Kőszeg, Gyula Kozák, Zsuzsa Hermann, and others.

The photo collection of Lóránt Méhes

The photo collection of the painter Lóránt Méhes (“Zuzu”) portrays the personalities and events of the Budapest alternative art scene from the beginning of the seventies. The images arranged into scrap books in chronological order can be called social albums on the analogy of family albums, and present a composed, personal, visual imprint of the style of living of the nonconformist community.

Location:
- Budapest Reáltanoda utca 9, Hungary 1053
Topics:
Date of founding:
- 1985
Featured items:
- Anonymus. Dixi at the terrace of Restaurant Kárpátia, 1969. Photo
- Méhes, Lóránt. Companionship, 1985. Photopainting

The society of students of Faculty of Arts, UJEP Brno Collection at the Archive of Masaryk University

Sbírka dokumentů nezávislého sdružení studentů a absolventů Filozofické fakulty UJEP. Artefakty sbírky – ručně psané plakáty, tisky a strojopisy dokumentují pohnuté období roku 1968 a začínající normalizaci především na Filozofické fakultě, ve městě Brně, ale i celém Československu.

Location:
- Žerotínovo náměstí 449/3, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Topics:
- student movement
Date of founding:
- 1968
Featured items:
- Student magazine "Ruch"

Theatre 'in der Wende' Collection

The Theater in ‘der Wende’ collection preserved by the Academy of Arts in Berlin documents changes in theatres in the former GDR as well as in cultural politics, covering the period from the autumn of 1989 until mid 1990s. The collection includes twelve theatres from the GDR, but it focuses mostly on (East and West) Berlin and Brandenburg, and three newly emerged theatres, in the context of the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. The timeframe includes the transformation period initiated in some theatres prior to 1989 until their dissolution or those that completed their transformation at the beginning of 1990s. The materials were selected to showcase the uniqueness of the changes that affected theatres, an institution which was directly monitored by the surveillance mechanisms of the regime.

Location:
- Berlin, Germany
Topics:
- theatre and performing arts
Date of founding:
- 1989
Featured items:
- 'Knights of the Rounde Table', by Christoph Hein