Bakos Katalin - Manicka Anna szerk.: Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben, Lengyel és magyar grafika 1918–1939 (MNG, Warszawa–Budapest, 2009)
I. PÁRBESZÉD FEKETE-FEHÉRBEN - Bakos Katalin, Anna Manicka: Valami történik közöttünk. Szubjektív előszó a Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben. Lengyel és magyar grafika
The Poles raised money, collected blood and medicines of which 16 shipments were transported by Red Cross airplanes to Budapest between 25 October and 3 November to aid the revolutionaries. The Polish official authorities did not hinder the manifestations of sympathy or the civil initiatives of help. For me, the most moving commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Revolution was held in the Polish Institute in 2007: an exhibition of posters by Polish and Hungarian artists in tribute to the Revolution. In the focus was a poster by Franciszek Starowiejski made in 1956, showing a weeping pigeon, which became the symbol of grief over the suppressed revolution. Another event in our common historical past was the admission of Polish refugees in 1939. These are the mosaic shards I mentioned at the beginning. AM: Isn't our dialogue amusing? It takes a little more than an hour to get from Warsaw to Budapest by air but we know so little about each other. What is it all about? Where does it come from? I mean the condition of people shutting themselves off from each other and being completely unaware of the other's history determining a peculiar kind of culture and art. At moments like this I think of Emmanuel Levinas' Other and the whole contemporary philosophy of dialogue. Ryszard Kapuściński 7 has once written that the contemporary world is more and more like a "network structure - changeable and dynamic, devoid of constant reference points. There are more and more people who have problems with defining their social or cultural affiliation. They feel lost and are increasingly susceptible to the prompting of nationalists who make them see the Other as a threat, as an enemy, as the cause of their oppressive frustration and fear." 8 This shows how important it is to define one's identity and develop a sense of affiliation. KB: There has always been a thin stratum of intellectuals in the East-Central European countries who took an interest in one another's history and culture. There are lots of important literary works available in translation; we stage mutual exhibitions to acquaint each other with our art. These efforts, however, are usually pushed into the background in the awareness of the broader public because small nations always seek points of reference in "great cultures" such as French, German, English history, politics, arts, trying to attract their attention and gain their support. Lots of traumas were suffered by the Central European region and many grievances have accumulated on all sides. Serious self-searching is needed to be able to realize our own follies beside our dues. That is maybe why we turn to outsiders lest we should have to look into a mirror that would sincerely expose our weaknesses as well underlying the desired ideals. Post-1945 socialist politics proclaimed it a high-priority goal to cherish relations with the "friendly countries" in the name of the proletarian internationalism, but it actually obstructed a more profound acquaintance, just as it hindered the critical recognition of a country's real situation, history, culture. Those who were, and are, truly interested in self-knowledge - the critical intellectuals - have always found each other across the boundaries. An outcome of this communication is Lettre Internationale which introduces East-Central European countries to one another and to lesser and greater Western countries. Preparing for this exhibition now, I've re-read the Hungarian literary historians Endre Bojtár's and Péter Krasztev's works 9 , who are passionately involved in the comparative research of Central and Eastern European literatures. By comparing 19th and 20th-century Polish, Czech, Croatian, Slovakian and Hungarian literatures - with references to French and German "relatives" - they can throw the specificities of the Hungarian literature into bolder relief than by studying it separately. I'd like something like that in art history. AM: I believe that first and foremost a knowledge of one's native history and culture would be instrumental. This in the first place. Secondly, it would be a good thing to be aware of other communities, other nations living close to us that may see the same history in a different way, that may have a different type of experience. The Hungarian Republic of Soviet is a case in point. I remember having learnt at school that at that time the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania [SDKPÍLI was in operation, which was anxious to start the same kind of revolution, and that Lenin imagined leading his soldiers into Europe any moment then. I went to
