The "contemporary classic" and the "classic contemporary" will be in the focus at this year's Free University. Eight well known figures on Hungary's arts scene will give lectures during the four-day event.
The historian Gábor Klaniczay will kick off the series of lectures with a talk on avant-garde art and rock music subculture in the 70s and 80s. Literary historian Zsófia Bán will speak about American postmodernism. Theatre historian Árpád Kékesi Kun will give a talk on the contemporary "tradition" of musical theatre. The composer and music historian Iván Madarász will examine tradition in music. Gábor Vályi, the cultural researcher and DJ, will dissect questions surrounding "remixed tradition". Art historian Ákos Müllner will offer a closer look at the year 1968, the golden age of the "happening". Gábor Andrási, editor-in-chief of the arts journal Műértő, will outline paradigm changes in art in a talk on "loser esthetics". And András Rényi will give an overview of what is "contemporary". A roundtable talk on dance, from folk dance to contemporary dance, will finish the series of lectures. A number of emblematic figures on Hungary's art scene - among them Zoltán Farkas Batyu, Csaba Horváth and Péter Kovács Gerzson - have been invited to participate.
The Trafó's Dóra Juhász said the questions discussed at the Free University would be touched on as well at a performance by the grande dame of contemporary American dance Trisha Brown on September 14-15. Brown will bring some of her legendary works from the 70s to the Trafó, among them a reworking of her piece Temporary with her company TranzDanz, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
The performance will raise the questions "Is their tradition in contemporary art and in contemporary dance?", "Who follows which examples or masters, and who leads?" and "What is it like for a contemporary artist to look back on his or her earlier, "classic" period?", Juhász said.
