András Masát, rector of the Andrássy Gyula Budapest German Language University and the former director of Berlin's Collegium Hungaricum, said Hungary's culture institute in Germany serves to organise a cultural dialogue. Events are never organised by Hungarians alone, but always involve the participation of Germans.
Literature is one of the culture institute's liveliest areas in Germany, which disproves the adage that Hungarian literature can't be translated, Masát said. "The key is that there have to be good Hungarian translators."
Zoltán Fónagy, the director of the Collegium Hungaricum in Vienna, also said the most valuable parts of the culture institute were its activities as a broker of culture and a starter of dialogues. It is a special challenge to make the best use of the Collegium Hungaricum's eight-storey building in the Austrian capital, he added.
Gyula Dávid, who heads the Hungarian Institute in Tallinn, said his position was less fortunate in terms of infrastructure: the institute's space is small and many of the events it organises take place at other venues. Sometimes the institute organises programmes outside of the capital - it even has a presence in Lithuania and Latvia, he added.
Just because something is Hungarian does not mean foreigners will be interested in it, Dávid said. But cultural "imports" can be discovered. Hungarian films have never gone on commercial release in the Baltic States, but Kornél Mundruczó's latest film Delta has broken the trend. Other Hungarian "products" that have proved popular in Estonia are contemporary jazz and folk music. Interestingly, Dávid noted, Estonians buy half a million bottles of Torley - Hungary's best-known sparkling wine - each year.
Author: Éva Kelemen / Photo: kultura.hu
