Armanca?s first deputy will be director of the French Institute in Budapest Francois Laquieze, who will take over her post next year. Her second deputy will be British Council director in Budapest Simon Ingram-Hill, who will take over the post in October 2012.
Armanca said several events are planned for the year to come. As part of EUNIC Day on April 2, a theatre festival will be held in Thália Theatre in Budapest, which will include public readings and performances based on an anthology of one-act plays published by the Polish Institute in 2008. Each of the 27 EU members states are featured in the volume and the works are printed in the original language, as well as in Hungarian and Italian translation.
On the initiative of the Czech Centre, a literary festival is planned to coincide with the International Book Festival of Budapest in April. However, in line with the organisation?s regulations, the Czechs will need to get two sponsors for the initiative before it is approved at one of the bimonthly EUNIC meetings.
Films of the 60s and 70s will be shown at the Goethe Institute in late August. With the help of an EU subsidy for the project, the institute will show films that played a role in the dismantling of the Iron Curtain.
The Hungarian office of EUNIC was set up in 2007 by the Goethe Institute, The British Council, the French Institute, the Camois Institute of Portugal, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the cultural institutes of Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Denmark, Poland and Estonia, the Cervantes Institute of Spain, Finnagora, the Czech Centre and the Balassi Institute as members, as well as several partner organisations and observers.
EUNIC aims to promote cultural links, intercultural dialogue, multilingualism and creativity.
EUNIC members have organised many events in Hungary, including EuropeMania in Pécs, the Baltic Festival, the Freedom ?89 concert series, the European Language Bar, the Eurolab conference and the Central European Literary Forum.
A total of 31 organisations from 27 EU countries have joined EUNIC. The organisation, based in Brussels, is headed by the writer and philosopher Horia Roman Patapievici, chairman of the Romanian Cultural Institutes. He will attend an event on Friday when Armanca takes over the post from the outgoing Danish chairwoman.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
