Balázs Eszter: Art in action. Lajos Kassák's Avant-Garde Journals from A Tett to Dokumentum, 1915-1927 - The avant-garde and its journals 3. (Budapest, 2017)

Judit Galácz: Avant-Garde Experiments Committed to Paper - the MA “Music and Theatre Special Issue” (1924)

LAJOS KASSÁK AND THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF NEW THEATRE TECHNIQUES IN VIENNA

Although Kassák continued to publish Mácza’s writings, he was only really interested in one element of them, namely the unity to be created from the synthesis of theatrical space and movement. We can locate the reason for this divergence of opinion in the fact that Kassák was influenced by constructivist theories. At the 1922 First Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin,5 Kassák became acquainted with the work of several Russian revolutionary artists, among them El Lissitzky, Vladimir Tatlin and Kazimir Malevich. Russian constructivist theories and notions guiding the radical transformation of stage space also appeared in MA's theatrical publications. Such texts included writings on opportunities to create Proletkult and propaganda theatre (János Mácza), plans to rethink stage space in a completely new way (Kurt Schwitters), and what was termed “mechanical theatre" (Farkas Molnár).6

The artists around MA entered contemporary international avant-garde theatrical discourse in September 1924 with the MA “Music and Theatre Special issue”.7 8 [Fig. 2] The special issue was produced following the International Exhibition of New Theatre Techniques in Vienna, which featured leading artists and concepts of the international avant-garde on the theme of contemporary theatre.3

The exhibition concept was developed by Friedrich Kiesler, whose influential works experimented with the introduction of progressive forms which deconstructed the traditional stage space, and made possible new ways of creating spectacle. Some works in the exhibition dealt with the possibilities of stage mechanics, others with the concept of the complete deconstruction and rethinking ofthe traditional stage. The works on show ranged from scale models and set designs to puppet art, presenting the wide range of avant-garde theatre experiments to the public. Artists exhibited included Oskar Schlemmer, Kurt Schwitters, Alexandra Exter and László Moholy-Nagy.

5 El Lissitzky (ed.), Erste Russische Kunstausstellung [First Russian art exhibition], Galerie van Diemen, Berlin, 1922.

6 János Mácza, Az új művészek és a Prolétkult [New artists and the Proletkult], MA, 7/8., 1922, 60-61. Kurt Schwitters, A Merzszínpad [The Merz-stage], MA, 6/3., 1921, 29. Farkas Molnár, A mechanikus színpad [The mechanical stage], MA, 8/9-10., 1923, [6.]

7 MA, “Music and Theatre Special issue", 9/8-9., 1924.

8 Friedrich Kiesler (ed.), Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik [International exhibition of new theatre techniques], Würthle, Vienna, 1924.

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