FREEDOM TRAP

Hajnal Németh, „Freedom Trap”, 2024, performance in two versions, EBENSPERGER, Berlin, 2024
In the picture: Mark Ballyk
Photo by Rania Ruzsa

Performance in two versions presented on two consecutive nights, 30 and 31 August 2024 at EBENSPERGER – Fichtebunker, Berlin.

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
Johannes Schüchner – spoken words
Zsolt Sőrés – composition, electric viola
André Vida – composition, breathless saxophone, vocals, spoken words

In “Freedom Trap” consecutive performances based on varied interpretations of different types of texts are underpinned or counterpointed by musical segments. The piece, in this so-called “counter-concert” format, applying experimental speech techniques, vocal and musical methods, innovatively interprets texts from two different sources. On the one hand it revives a selection of writings by the legendary Hungarian underground artist, writer and film director – Tibor Hajas (1946-80); and on the other, it uncovers and discredits selected archival materials, by performing in a special way intelligence and police reports on the professional environment, exhibitions and performances of the artist.

Regarding content, 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 surveillance and harassment, the place was finally walled up by the regime. Following this, several participating artists were forced to leave the country.

The title of the performance “Freedom Trap” refers to the pseudo-manifesto kind of writing „Freedom Industry Broadcast, Channel IV” by Tibor Hajas. He performed the piece in the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár on 21 July 1973.

Hajnal Németh, „Freedom Trap”, 2024, performance in two versions, EBENSPERGER, Berlin, 2024
Photos by Rania Ruzsa and Zsófia Láposi

“Freedom Trap”, 2024
Performance in two versions
Presented at EBENSPERGER, Fichtebunker, Berlin
30 and 31 August 2024
Developed and directed by: Hajnal Németh
Realized by: Mark Ballyk, Ghazi Barakat, Werner Durand, Nina Guo, Mark Harwood, Júlia Koffler, Bence Kovács, Erik Leuthäuser, Mathis Mayr, Friede Merz, Zofia Polak, Johannes Schüchner, Zsolt Sőrés, André Vida
Authors of the texts performed: Tibor Hajas, Hajnal Németh
Language: English
Translation: Dániel Sipos
Duration of the piece: approx. 2x 70 min

The “Freedom Trap” performance was first presented as a seven-day long event at the former Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár in September 2023, initiated by curators Gabriella Schuller and László Százados. 

In developing the piece, special thanks go to the curators, the artists and performers, the Artpool Art Research Center, György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay, who founded the archive in 1979.

Also thanks to Péter Barta for the additional support.

This premiere of the Berlin version of the performance was funded by the Gwaertler Stiftung.