Snapshot Dialogue: Allan Siegel (Budapest) and Szabolcs KissPál (Budapest)
As part of its 25th Anniversary Celebrations, ARTMargins Online hosts a series of short dialogues between critics and curators from Eastern Europe and one or several artists. With these “snapshot” conversations, we want to shed light on the challenging political and economic conditions under which artists and other producers of culture in the region operate today, yet we also aim to highlight the amazing vibrancy, resilience, and resourcefulness of its art scenes.
This Snapshot Conversation, a podcast, focuses on the status of the Intermedia Program at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and the artistic practice of Szabolcs KissPál. KissPál and Siegel were colleagues in the department. Szabolcs is currently the Department Chair, while Allan is retired from teaching.
A number of Fine Arts programs in Europe and North America include Intermedia programs, although their courses and methodologies differ considerably. In the Fall of 1990 Miklós Peternák was invited to initiate discussions towards the formation of a new department at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts that would focus on evolving multidisciplinary art practices. Miklós and János Sugár, along with László Beke, were critical developers of this unique program, and the first Intermedia classes were officially launched in September 1993. Allan joined the department in 2001; he and Szabolcs worked closely together on a multi-year Erasmus Intensive program in collaboration with universities in Poland, Germany, England and Scotland. In addition, along with Zoltán Kékesi and Eszter Lazár (from the Art Theory and Curatorial Studies department, HUFA).
Tensions and political maneuvering have become acute in recent years and impacted Szabolcs quite directly. Conflicts typically revolve around the hierarchy of aesthetic values and pedagogical methodologies, with political affiliations often adding an unarticulated sub-text. As the Intermedia department has grown in size, visibility, and stature, these institutional antagonisms have persisted rather than diminished. On the one hand they are rooted in a perception that the entire concept of “intermedia” is illegitimate as an area of study; and on the other, in the perception that the Department encourages artistic practices that are anathema to the current political winds. Furthermore, for some time now, there have been political forces seeking to reshape the school by diminishing its independence and remodeling it along neoliberal lines.
Allan Siegel
Allan Siegel is a filmmaker, visual artist, and teacher who lives in Budapest. He was one of the founding members of the documentary film collective Newsreel (1968) and later a co-director of Third World Newsreel. His 20+ films have been presented at major international festivals and on television in the United States, Europe and Asia. He received his PhD in curatorial studies from the University of Reading and was a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Senior Lecturer in the Intermedia Department at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Siegel’s photographs, video works and mixed media installations have been exhibited in United States (Whitney Museum) and Europe (Pompidou Centre). He is a former Associate Editor of ARTMargins Online.
