How do they know your name?
I have many links with this place. We emigrated to Germany with my parents and my brother back in 1971. I studied history at the University of Dusseldorf, then took a doctorate and taught here. I quickly joined the fashionable new wave movements of the time and I met, among others, Joseph Beuys, whose free university I also attended. He was one of the people who inspired me to come to Germany in the first place.
What was the topic of your doctorate?
I was interested in a 19th century issue, the arrival of guest workers in Germany. I was interested in exploring how cultures in transfer interact with each other. How people can move to a new place and maintain their original spirit while also making the host country their own. The lives of these people in the 1800s were very similar to contemporary guest workers' lives and I was also in a similar situation.
What did you teach?
Visual philosophy, thinking about ways of seeing things. How this has changed during the centuries and in various cultures.
Then you moved to Berlin...
That was in the 1980s. It was Gábor Bódy's idea to establish an avant-garde magazine entitled Infermental. (see www.infermental.de - ed.) That was before the internet era. Artists from all over the world participated in it, including Hungarians, Poles and Germans, nearly 2,000 artists belonged in the magazine's circle from Tokyo to Vancouver. I was the coordinator.
Then you moved back home...
I worked in the Ludwig Museum as the curator of large international exhibitions. But I also considered smaller exhibitions important, where I was able to present lesser-known artists. In the meantime, I tried to involve some interesting people in the institution's life, for instance Orsolya Karafiáth organised supporting events and discussions for some time.
Why have you changed? More precisely, what has attracted you to become the fine art curator for the Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin?
First, it was family ties. My mother, who is of Greek descent, lives in Berlin, and my mother tongue is German. I have spent most of my life in Germany, so I have many ties here. I probably inherited my attraction to the arts from my father László Baksa-Soós, who was a well-known actor in Pest and even played the lead in two Karády films, Opium Waltz and Do Not Ask Who I Was.
Do you enjoy living here?
This is a brilliant institution. First of all, it is completely devoid of politics. It is only about culture and art. And the director Can Togay promises it will remain that way. Because of his personal history and the way he has dealt with culture and art. In his application for the post, he emphasised the importance of maintaining the traditions of this institution and returning to the spirit of the founder Róbert Gragger. As a Hungarologist back in the 1920s, Gragger thought it was vital to lift Hungary out of cultural isolation. Togay is building on good traditions, and injecting new spirit into them.
How does the Moholy-Nagy Gallery relate to this programme?
The activities of the house can be divided into three parts. One is the Gragger-founded institute where we help researchers with scholarships and other means of support. The other is the Ligeti music studio where we organise music and art events. And the third is the Moholy-Nagy Gallery, where the main activity is to organise exhibitions, but we want to also offer opportunities for different interrelated artistic forms to be presented.
Author: Ildikó Lőkös
