Liberation Exhibitions As a Commemorative Membrane of Socialist Hungary JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES in HUMANITIES 165
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JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 165 Veera Rautavuoma Liberation Exhibitions as a Commemorative Membrane of Socialist Hungary JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 165 Veera Rautavuoma Liberation Exhibitions as a Commemorative Membrane of Socialist Hungary Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Historica-rakennuksen salissa H320 joulukuun 17. päivänä 2011 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Jyväskylä, in building Historica, hall H320, on December 17, 2011 at 12 o'clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2011 Liberation Exhibitions as a Commemorative Membrane of Socialist Hungary JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 165 Veera Rautavuoma Liberation Exhibitions as a Commemorative Membrane of Socialist Hungary UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2011 Editors Tuomo Lahdelma Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä Pekka Olsbo Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities Editorial Board Editor in Chief Heikki Hanka, Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä Petri Karonen, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä Paula Kalaja, Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä Petri Toiviainen, Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä Tarja Nikula, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä Raimo Salokangas, Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä Cover picture "Our road, our life", Museum of Ethnography, 1985 (D18260) Images courtesy of Hungarian National Museum and Museum of Ethnography URN:ISBN:978-951-39-4561-9 ISBN 978-951-39-4561-9 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-4560-2 (nid.) ISSN 1459-4323 Copyright © 2011 , by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2011 ABSTRACT Rautavuoma, Veera Liberation Exhibitions as a Commemorative Membrane of Socialist Hungary Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2011, 251 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4331; 165) ISBN 978-951-39-4560-2 (nid) ISBN 978-951-39-4561-9 (PDF) This doctoral dissertation explores the so-called ’liberation exhibitions’ (felszabadulási kiállítások) of state-socialist Hungary. The study focuses on six exhibitions in different museums of Budapest between the years 1960–1985, thus scrutinizing the ways in which the beginning of the state-socialist period was commemorated, and how the recent past, socialist present and the ultimate communist future were envisioned. In terms of theory, the study draws primar- ily on museum studies. The research material comprises heterogeneous exhibi- tion documentation: scripts, photos, memos, reports by party organs and con- temporary museological publications. Methodologically, the approach is crys- tallized in the notion of ’visiting the scripts’, which means the kind of reading that aims at re-creating an exhibitionary space that no longer exists. Further, the exhibitions are approached through the notion of the commemorative mem- brane, designated to explore the multiple tensions inherent in the public repre- sentations of the past, especially in a totalitarian context. The aforementioned tensions are conceived of in terms of narrative, mimetic and discursive tensions. Accordingly, the exhibitions are approached as (heritage) narratives that pro- jected “the road of socialism”, as mimetic fragments embodying specific truth claims and as discursive formations embedded in the context of ‘socialist muse- ology’. The study shows that while the original role of the exhibitions remained the same, their contents manifested a shift in focus from political history to as- pects of culture and lifestyle. The exhibition narratives became looser and more aware of their multiple layers of meaning. In their visual appearance, the exhi- bitions often reflected the dividedness informed by the Cold War and colonial power relations. In terms of commemorative genre, the study reveals that the exhibitions had to reconcile numerous, often contradictory expectations. This study suggests that the liberation exhibitions of state-socialist Hungary may be regarded as a paradigmatic case of ’socialist museology’. The exhibitions reflect the ways a ‘soft dictatorship’ sought to represent itself as a modern socialist welfare state. At the same time, the research setting prompts further questions regarding the role of changing interpretative contexts. Keywords: commemorative genre, commemorative membrane, exhibition, Hungary, ideology, liberation, mimesis, museology, narrative, socialism. Author’s address Veera Rautavuoma Department of Art and Culture Studies University of Jyväskylä [email protected] Supervisors Professor Tuomo Lahdelma Department of Art and Culture Studies University of Jyväskylä Reviewers Professor Gábor Gyáni Member of the Hungarian Academy Institute of History, HAS ELTE Social Science Faculty Professor Urpo Kovala Research Centre for Contemporary Culture Department of Art and Culture Studies University of Jyväskylä Opponent Professor Gábor Gyáni ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I feel privileged. It has been touching to witness the good will of the numerous people and institutions that have shown an interest towards my work and guided and supported my study. This is especially true of the staff of several museums in Budapest: the National Museum, the Museum of Ethnography, Kunsthalle (MĬcsarnok), Budapest History Museum and the Museum of Mili- tary History. This study would have not been possible without the persistent advice and insights of Anna Bartó Halmi at the Historical Documentation De- partment of the National Museum. I am grateful to Zsófia Frazon and Anna Czékmány for stimulating discussions and the way they consistently involved me in their networks of museum discourse. My study has several academic homes, the most important of them being Hungarian Studies, The Research Centre for Contemporary Culture, and Muse- um Studies all at the University of Jyväskylä. I thank my supervisor Tuomo Lahdelma for his advice and support, and my colleague Kristóf Fenyvesi for being a sidekick in virtually everything. I also thank Erkki Vainikkala and Janne Vilkuna for providing discussion forums in their seminars. I am grateful to Anssi Halmesvirta, Tuija Saresma, Katalin Miklóssy and the members of the “Cult, Community, Identity” research group for their valuable comments and exchange of thoughts. The constructive criticism my reviewers Gábor Gyáni and Urpo Kovala provided my work, has been plentiful. I cordially thank all those institutions that have provided financial support. Apart from working in the “Cult, Community, Identity” project funded by the Academy of Finland, I have received grants from the Finnish Cultural Founda- tion, The Kone Foundation, Hungarian Studies and the Department of Art and Culture Studies of the University of Jyväskylä. Several study and conference visits to Hungary have been enabled with the support by the Hungarian Acad- emy of Sciences. My “inmates” Eeva Rohas, Tuulia Toivanen and Anna Pehkoranta have shared with me the everyday excitement and absurdities of doing research and I thank them for that. I thank Anna-Leena Toivanen, not only for her insightful comments on my texts, but also for her being there. To Markku Nivalainen I am grateful for his ruthless criticism of each and every order (existing and non- existent). I thank Katri Kluukeri and Ágnes Pasztercsák for keeping me sane. I am fortunate to have a family and friends who firmly believe in me. I want to thank my mother for sharing her lucid dreams, my father for his fa- mous “flexible solutions” and my sister for all the “sisterhood things” imagined and realized. My husband, Béla, I thank for his productive leaps of faith and his infinite patience; my daughters Léda and Lia I thank for their leaps of fantasy and infinite impatience. I dedicate this dissertation to the memory of my grandparents. Jyväskylä 1.11.2011 Veera Rautavuoma CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FIGURES AND TABLES 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 9 1.1 Im/permeable pasts: commemorative membrane ................................ 9 1.2 Aims and frameworks .............................................................................. 12 1.3 Ethnographic moments: the inside-outside syndrome ....................... 16 1.4 Research material ...................................................................................... 20 1.5 A note on terminology ............................................................................. 24 1.6 The historical context ............................................................................... 26 2 THE MUSEOLOGICAL CONTEXT ................................................................ 32 2.1 Cultural Information about the Exhibited Culture and the Exhibition Culture ........................................................................................................ 32 2.2 Modernity, power-knowledge and the museum ................................. 35 2.3 Between showing and telling: mimesis and narrativity ..................... 40 2.4 Between memory and history: workings of the membrane ............... 48 2.5 Visiting the scripts: reading for the membrane .................................... 54 3 FROM RUINS TO WEEKEND HOUSES: THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM ... 60 3.1 “Hungary on the road to socialism 1945-1960” .................................... 60 3.2 “The 20 years of our