more information – Hajnal Németh

FREEDOM TRAP

Hajnal Németh, „Freedom Trap”, 23-29 September 2023, performance series split into seven consecutive evenings, Blue Chapel in Balatonboglár – originally György Galántai’s Chapel Studio (1970-73)
In the picture: Dimitrij Vincze, Dóra Csernátony, Gyula L. Szabó, Péter Janesch
Photo by Rania Ruzsa

A series of performances split into seven consecutive evenings between 23-29 September 2023, addressing the surveillance and the forced closure of György Galántai’s Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár, from 50 years later, at the original location.

Developed and directed by: Hajnal Németh

Realized by: Péter Barta, Dóra Csernátony, Sophie Horvath, Ágoston Janesch, Péter Janesch, Júlia Koffler, Bence Kovács, Goran Milosevic, Katica Nagy, Kálmán Oláh, Albert Orgon, Rebeka Zsuzsanna Pál, Zofia Polak, Károly Puka, Gyula L. Szabó, Attila Till, Dimitrij Vincze

Contributing artists: Arnold Dreyblatt, Zsolt Sőrés, Jeremy Woodruff

In this first version of „Freedom Trap”, split into seven days of the week, consecutive performances based on varied interpretations of different types of texts are underpinned or counterpointed by musical segments. The piece composed of this rehearsal-like performances, in a 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 who died young – Tibor Hajas (1946-80); and on the other, it uncovers and discredits selected archival materials, such as intelligence and police reports on the community and events of the Balatonboglár Chapel Studio – in which Hajas regularly participated.

The texts of the reports are deprived of meaning by the use of methods such as word splitting and remixing, fragmentation and rhythmisation, translation into foreign languages that are difficult to identify, and the use of linguistic or acoustic devices to interfere with or obstruct the reading of the text.

Regarding content, the piece “Freedom Trap” 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.

Tibor Hajas, „Freedom Industry Broadcast, Channel IV”, performance, Chapel Studio, Balatonboglár, 21 July 1973
Photo by András Tóth

“Freedom Trap”, 2023
Performance series split into seven consecutive evenings
Between 23-29 September 2023
Presented at the Blue Chapel in Balatonboglár – originally György Galántai’s Chapel Studio between 1970-73
Developed and directed by: Hajnal Németh
Realized by: Péter Barta, Dóra Csernátony, Sophie Horvath, Ágoston Janesch, Péter Janesch, Júlia Koffler, Bence Kovács, Goran Milosevic, Katica Nagy, Kálmán Oláh, Albert Orgon, Rebeka Zsuzsanna Pál, Zofia Polak, Károly Puka, Gyula L. Szabó, Attila Till, Dimitrij Vincze
Contributing artists: Arnold Dreyblatt, Zsolt Sőrés, Jeremy Woodruff
Authors of the texts performed: Tibor Hajas, Hajnal Németh
Language: Hungarian and English
Translation: Dániel Sipos
Duration of the piece: approx. 7x 60 min

The project was part of the programme Performative Archive: Balatonboglár 1970-73, curated by Gabriella Schuller and László Százados. The series evoked and thematised the Chapel Studio of neo-avant-garde and Fluxus artist György Galántai, 50 years on.

View the book „Illegal Avantgarde”

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

Commissioned by Veszprém-Balaton 2023 – European Capital of Culture and Babel Camp.