ONGOING & UPCOMING
FREEDOM TRAP
Hajnal Németh, “FREEDOM TRAP”, 2023, performance, Chapel Studio, Balatonboglár, photo by Rania Ruzsa
On the picture: Júlia Koffler
FREEDOM TRAP
Performance in two versions
Version 1: Friday, 30 August 2024, 20:00
Version 2: Saturday, 31 August 2024, 20:00
On both occasions:
Door opens at 19:30
Starts at 20:00
Duration: approx 70 min
Language: english
Free admission
Venue:
EBENSPERGER, Fichtebunker, Fichtestraße 6, 10967 Berlin
(The temperature in the bunker is 16-18 °C, please dress accordingly.)
FREEDOM TRAP is developed and directed by: Hajnal Németh
Realized by:
Mark Ballyk – composition, percussions, vocals, spoken words
Ghazi Barakat – composition, electric wind instrument, vocals
Werner Durand – composition, self-made wind instruments
Nina Guo – vocals, spoken words
Mark Harwood – spoken words
Júlia Koffler – vocals, spoken words, microcassette voice recorders
Bence Kovács – spoken words
Erik Leuthäuser – vocals, spoken words
Mathis Mayr – composition, cello, pedals
Friede Merz – vocals, spoken words
Zofia Polak – spoken words
Zsolt Sőrés – composition, electric viola
André Vida – composition, breathless saxophone, vocals, spoken words
FREEDOM TRAP, in a so-called counter-concert format, musically interprets texts from two different sources: on the one hand, a selection of writings by Hungarian underground artist, writer and film director Tibor Hajas (1946-80); and on the other hand, selected archival materials – extracted versions of intelligence and police reports on the artist’s professional environment, their exhibitions and performances.
The piece explores the relativity of freedom of expression and the illusion of individual freedom in a controlled society, through examples from the past in the context of the present, highlighting the validity of performed authorial and archival texts regardless of time and place.
Tibor Hajas, who died in a car accident at the age of 34, is one of the best-known Hungarian artists of the 1970s underground scene, especially in the fields of performance, action and conceptual art. Some of his early pieces were made in the spirit of Fluxus, and later he created performances exploring his own physical and mental limits, where the body is used to extremes in order to hint at the dichotomy between political repression and bodily confinement. He was a universal creator, he has also made a number of experimental films and videos, and has worked as a poet and writer. Hajas has participated in exhibitions at the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár and has been featured in the Young Artists Club in Budapest. These venues and the artists exhibiting and performing there were under constant surveillance and control by the secret agents of the state security apparatus and the authorities of the political regime.
Between 1970 and 1973, György Galántai’s Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár was the scene of an exemplary self-organising, progressive artistic initiative in Hungary, independent of official cultural policy, a venue featuring mainly avant-garde artists considered politically undesirable, as well as foreign guest artists. After four years of activity, which included 35 exhibitions, concerts, poetry recitals, performances, and film screenings, under constant surveillanceand harassment, the place was finally walled up by the regime. Following this, several participating artists were forced to leave the country.
Tibor Hajas, „Freedom Industry Broadcast, Channel IV”, performance, Balatonboglár Chapel Studio, 21 July 1973, photo by András Tóth
The FREEDOM TRAP project was first presented as a six-day long event at the former Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár in September 2023, initiated by curators Gabriella Schuller and László Százados. In developing the project, special thanks go to the curators, the Artpool Art Research Center, the artists and performers. Texts translated by Dániel Sipos.
Gwaertler Stiftung is the main funder of the Berlin premiere of FREEDOM TRAP and the preparations for the related film installation. Additional support was provided by Péter Barta.
