A month earlier, Minister of Education and Culture István Hiller announced the appointment of János Can Togay to head the Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin, Péter Kovács to lead the Hungarian Academy in Rome and István Zimonyi to oversee Hungary's cultural institute in Cairo.
Can Togay will take up his post in November, but will work together with
Many Apply For Attaché Posts
An average of 15 applications have been received for each of the new cultural attaché posts recently established by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The ministry invited applications for posts in Beijing, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Belgrade and Zagreb. Decisions on the applicants will be made around August 20 and an announcement will follow in the last week of the month.
The cultural attachés in Beijing and Shanghai will take their posts as early as September 1, in time for the start of the Hungarian Cultural Season in China. The attaché in Tel Aviv will start work on November 1, the one in Belgrade on December 1 and the one in Zagreb from January 1.
The postings are for four years.
the Collegium Hungaricum's current director until January as the cultural institute moves into its new building - the government's biggest foreign investment since the fall of communism. Kovács will take his post from September 1, and Zimonyi will start work in Cairo after Ramadan, Éva Lauter, who heads the Balassi Institute, which coordinates Hungary's cultural diplomacy, said at the press conference.
János Can Togay said his biggest task would be to promote the Collegium Hungaricum in its new building. The first goal will be to draw the institute into Berlin's cultural life. Afterward, it can work on establishing its own image, he said.
The Collegium Hungaricum's new home has a 230-square-metre exhibition room where work by Hungarian artists can be shown, and it also has several multi-functional spaces, Can Togay said. The renovated neo-baroque building is itself a work of art, he added.
Péter Kovács's plan for the Hungarian Academy in Rome, housed in the prestigious Falconieri Palace since 1927, involve raising the profile of the cultural institute's gallery by taking advantage of the recent increase in the popularity of contemporary art. Kovács said he foresees not just exhibitions of Hungarian artworks, but works from many other countries based around a central theme.
István Zimonyi said it would present a challenge taking over the Cairo Cultural Advisory Office at a time when the Islamic world has tended to turn away from Europe. He said he saw the opportunity to develop the office with the assistance of archaeologists.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
