MUPA was officially opened with a concert by the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zoltán Kocsis on March 14, 2005, but the centre's director Imre Kiss assessed the past five years at a press conference on Thursday.
Kiss said he considered it extremely important that MUPA was a project that spanned two governments and today, too, is a cultural institution independent of politics. The foreign press regularly writes about the centre, which does much for the positive image of the country as a whole, he added.
MUPA has raised the profile of Hungarian music, said Liszt Music Academy rector András Batta. The centre has become an extremely important place for students of the academy as it serves as a venue for many graduation concerts.
The building itself offers a multi-functional space for all kinds of performances, allowing pieces to be heard and seen that may not otherwise have been staged, such as some Schönberg operas, said Zoltán Kocsis, whose orchestra has made its home at MUPA.
Jolán Török, who heads the National Dance Theatre, which is also based in MUPA, said the troupe had been able to perform 25 productions at the centre that it would not have been able to at another venue.
Barnabás Bencsik, director of the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art (LUMU), which shares the same building as MUPA, said the museum's new home had brought Budapest onto the international contemporary art scene.
MUPA has hosted 5,387 events, including 2,365 stage performances, drawing 3.5m visitors since it opened. One-tenth of the visitors were foreigners.
The building itself has won two Fiabci prizes, a Café Momus and a Golden Pin from the Hungarian Association of Graphic Design Studios.
Public television broadcaster Magyar Televízió will show a one-hour special on MUPA on March 14.
Author: Melinda Serfőző / Photo: Dániel Kováts
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