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)
Márton Pacsika: Purposeful Player of the New Instrument - Lajos Kassák and the Budapest MA
Márton Pacsika PURPOSEFUL PLAYER OF THE NEW INSTRUMENT - LAJOS KASSÁK AND THE BUDAPEST MA "They struck us down, but we forced ourselves back to our feet [...] we kept working in silence, and one day, openly and cheerfully, we came out into the light with a new journal, MA."1 2 Lajos Kassák's first journal, A Tett [The Action], was banned by the Ministry of the Interior in 1916 for publishing material in an “International issue” that “endangered the interests of warfare”.3 After a break of a few months, Kassák and his circle brought out another journal with the title MA [Today], [Figs. 1-2] The history of MA customarily falls into two periods, corresponding to its publication in Budapest (1916-1919) and in Vienna (1920-1925). In reality, the journal was in a state of continual change even in the Budapest period, as an institution developed around it and its contributors came and went.4 Like Die Aktion [The Action] of Berlin, its area of interest extended into public affairs, but it started primarily as a "literary and art journal”, and retained this profile until 1918. Kassák and his circle could not of course ignore the turbulent domestic and international affairs of the time. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the period of the Hungarian Soviet Republic shaped the mood and subject matter of the journal and constrained its options. MA AS AN INSTITUTION Although it criticized the capitalist system of art institutions from the first issue onwards, MA also made very good use of its means. For Kassák, the question of artistic autonomy had an institutional as well as a purely aesthetic aspect. Having attained financial independence within the capitalist system, MA was able to guarantee the autonomy of the art created under the auspices of capitalism. Its Propaganda section gives a clear picture of how MA expanded and professionalized as an institution and developed into a sustainable business enterprise. Under the MA “brand”, Kassák and his circle went 1 The title is a quotation from an article by József Révai, Kassák, új fajiság és objektiv lira [Kassák, new form of racial consciousness and objective lyricism], MA, 2/12., 1917,192. 2 Lajos Kassák, Egy ember élete [The Life of a Man], voi. II., Magvető, Budapest, 1983,308. 3 For the prosecutor’s ruling that imposed the ban, see 5484/1914 M.E. KM-an. 10/1. Petőfi Literary Museum-Kassák Museum, Budapest. 4 See Júlia Szabó, A magyar aktivizmus története [History of Hungarian activism], MTA, Budapest, 1971. 71
