Excellent cultural links between Hungary and Germany can be tapped, said Tamas Szalay. In addition to historic links with Turkey, the basis of cooperation with Istanbul is openness and curiosity, he added.
One cooperation project already organised with Essen will be Essen-Pecs Wind Music, which is based on existing links between the Pecs Art Secondary School's wind orchestra and the Schoenebecker Jugend-Blasorchester since 2007. The Hungarian and German musicians and their teachers have been involved in joint workshops.
Under the Diptichon project, Hungary's UMZE chamber ensemble and MusikFabrik from Westphalia will present a unique contemporary music programme in Pecs, playing works by Swiss composer Hanspeter Kyburz and Hungary's Gyorgy Kurtag.
A series of events entitled Journey Around the Turkish Half-Moon will start in Pecs in May, presenting cultural traditions, as well as the works of contemporary photographers, musicians, writers and filmmakers from Turkey. There will be concerts, Kurdish folk dance presentations, a Turkish film week and gastronomic events.
Pecs will be represented in Istanbul at a festival of amateur university theatre groups and at the 13th International Puppet Festival. Young Hungarian artists will present their works at a three-day Istanbul street festival in late June.
A concert project entitled Pecs-Ruhr Region-Istanbul will be presented in all three cities, combining the music traditions of the three countries into a new "global sound," Szalay said. Architect and urban development students from the three countries will cooperate in a project called Temporary City, which will target various spaces selected in the three cities and develop proposals for development projects.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
