Press Room

Verzio DocLab
Posted: 06/September/2016
IN COOPERATION WITH VISUAL STUDIES PLATFORM AT CEU AND THE CEU LIBRARY’S MIRABAUD MEDIA LABVerzio DocLabNovember 9-12, 2016CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN FILMMAKING WORKSHOP
 
Pre-Session Week Begins at OSA
Posted: 01/September/2016

Pre Session Week begins at OSA!

At the beginning of each academic year The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) hosts students from the various departments of the Central European University for a full week. The aim of these visits is for students to discover the various research possibilities at the archives.

 
Olympics and Politics: Berlin / Barcelona 1936
Posted: 09/August/2016

Olympics and Politics - Berlin / Barcelona 1936

 An exhibition organized by the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives

 

Vernissage:June 23, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.

23 June – 28 August 2016

Galeria Centralis, Vera and Dondald Blinken Open Society Archives

 

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Berlin Summer Olympics and the Olimpíada Popular, the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives presents the exhibition Olympics and Politics – Berlin / Barcelona 1936,which examines how these international sporting events became the terrains for ideological and physical battles in the heavily politicised 1930s, and how the two Games acquired different political significance. Using archival sources (newsreel footage, films, photos, etc.), the exhibition views the two-week spectacle of the Berlin Games through the lenses of its counterpart, the Workers’ Olympics, and the war the Nazi ideology so pompously and magnificently promoted through its Olympics.

 
37th Annual Meeting of the European Coordination Committee on Human Rights Docum
Posted: 16/June/2016

On June 16-17, 2016, over 25 human rights data professionals (information managers, librarians, documentalists, archivists, lawyers and activists) gathered in the Research Room of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest for the 37th annual meeting of the European Coordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation ( ECCHRD ). ECCHRD is an open, informal network of Europe-based institutions and organizations producing, recording, managing and publishing human rights information.

 
Night of the Museums at Blinken OSA
Posted: 09/June/2016

Vera and Blinken Open Society Archives –  Night of Museums, June 25, 2016

16:00-00:55  Olympics and Politics - BERLIN / BARCELONA 1936

Exhibition in Galeria Centralis

 

19.00 – Olympics and politics on the Piste: Remembering Ilona Elek and Endre Kabos

 

Saxophone player, János Vázsonyi, improvises on the topic of the Olympics

 

Screening the private film “Richárd Deutsch: My Journey in Germany, 1936”

(Excerpt from Richárd Deutsch’s collection, Photographs and Home Movies Collection of Privát Fotó és Film Alapítvány deposited with Blinken OSA by Márton Kurutz film archeologist)

 

 

Fencing Show:

 

In memory of Ilona Elek and Endre Kabos, two extraordinary Hungarian fencers, Katalin Varga, Fruzsina Gólya, Zsolt Nemcsik and Kende Fodor will show men's saber fencing and women's foil fencing.

 

Judge: Etele Ravasz

 

21:00 -  Musical Background – GARPO

 

Film screening and musical improvisation

 

Repeated screening of the private film “Richárd Deutsch: My Journey in Germany, 1936”

 

Partners: Goethe Institute, Cervantes Institute  

 
Russian Service Audio Archives of RFE/RL -  Now Online
Posted: 09/June/2016
Russian Service Audio Archives of RFE/RL - - Now Online Browse 26 K Russian radio broadcast files for free!The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University (OSA) presents an online, fully searchable database of audio programs produced by RFE/RL Russian Service during the last half a century.Thanks to the cooperation between BLINKEN OSA, RFE/RL and the Hoover Institution Library & Archives this vast cultural heritage is now open for free & open access.During 2015-2016 OSA systematized, preserved and processed this unique Cold War period audio collection. The archive includes more than 26,000 audio clips broadcast into the Soviet Union and Russian Federation by Radio Svoboda from 1953 (the year the service was established in Munich, West Germany) to 1995 (when RFE/RL moved from Munich to Prague, Czech Republic).
 
The Witness to Guantanamo Project
Posted: 06/June/2016

The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives cordially invites you to a public talk by

Peter Jan Honigsberg , Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco, Founder and Director of the Witness to Guantanamo Project

THE WITNESS TO GUANTANAMO PROJECT:GIVING VOICE TO THE PEOPLE OF GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA

Monday, June 13, 2016 at 5 p.m.
at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives


 
AARON SWARTZ Fellowship
Posted: 22/May/2016
The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (Blinken OSA), one of the initiators of the open Access movement intends to award a fellowship each year to promising young technology expert, scholar or activist working at the intersection of humanities, social sciences and technologystudies or technological solutions. The fellowship is especially intended for those, with or without degree, who have strong practical skills in developing technological tools to make knowledge and data broadly available to the public; who have an interest in challenging information management practices in libraries and archives; who are ready to contribute to building innovative visual taxonomies or catalogs based on unorthodox ideas; and who can challenge the control of information by governments and publishers to promote civil liberties and online activism.
 
Call for submissions for students and teachers (in Hungari
Posted: 22/May/2016
Call for submissions for students and teachers (in Hungarian only) On the sixtieth anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Blinken OSA Archives has launched a series of public projects including two calls for applications for students and teachers. ‘Encode the Past! 1956 Remixed’ – Student Competition Youth under 20 are invited to develop innovative visualization solutions to rethink the events and memory of the 1956 Revolution using the digital collections of the Archives. Let’s Speak the Truth about ‘56 – Competition for History Teachers Teachers are invited create projects that present the 1956 Revolution - the events, the goals, the consequences as well as the lessons learned, using primary sources of information, original footage, images, voice recordings and written documents. Digital resources: http://1956.osaarchivum.org/ 1956@osaarchivum.org  More info: http://www.osaarchivum.org/events/Revolution-Not-Past   
 
Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead
Posted: 21/May/2016

Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead - Public Lecture by Thomas W. Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley

This lecture will discuss why the demand Jesus made of his followers that they leave "the dead to bury the dead" was as radical and impossible to meet when Marx made it as it had been in Biblical times. Or put differently, it is about why the living need the dead in all times and places but especially, for the purposes of this lecture, why and how the dead take on new responsibilities in nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 17:30 │ BLINKEN OSA ARCHIVES

ARANY J. 32, EXHIBITION HALL

 
Prime Time Nationalism
Posted: 09/May/2016

Prime Time Nationalism | The Role of Television Broadcasts/Archives in the Aftermath of the Yugoslav Wars

A conference and workshop organized by the Vera  and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) focusing on how television influenced and shaped the postwar national identity, recovery and development of the signatory states of the Dayton Agreement, and the lasting effect on their contemporary evolution in the light of a regional reconciliation. At the same time, we will seek to understand and offer new meanings for OSA’s media monitoring collection, which includes state television broadcasts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and FR Yugoslavia from 1996 to 1999, by looking at OSA’s newly experimented, self-reflexive (re)archiving and the problems it brought up.

 
Finissage - Some Music, Something Else…
Posted: 06/May/2016

Some Music, Something Else…
(April 28, 2016)

 The awards of the music competition, launched by the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives and Intermezzo Foundation for talented young Hungarian composers, were presented last Thursday at the Finissage and Awards Gala of the exhibition, Some kind of Opposition, curated by Axel Braun. This event also the premiered winning pieces that were performed by the students of the Hungarian Academy of Music.

At the end of February 2016, the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives and the Intermezzo Foundation invited composers under thirty to submit pieces that had previously not been performed. A unique aspect of the competition was that it specified not only the length of the pieces and the use of instruments but the theme as well. Applicants had full access to the background files and the audio and visual documents of the exhibition for an inspirational base. The composers had one month to write the pieces and send them to the Jury made up of composer Gyula Fekete and Miklós Csemiczky, and conductor Gergely Madaras.

 
Blinken OSA
Posted: 04/May/2016
Samizdat ArchivistThe Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archive (Blinken OSA) seeks to employ a full time archivist with a graduate degree in History or related discipline, and a proven experience in archives, libraries. The chosen candidate will work collaboratively under the supervision of the Chief Archivist and in close cooperation with Senior Librarian and Data Specialist, exercising good judgment and initiative, and managing sensitive materials. Knowledge of 20th century East-European history, or a related field is an asset. The position requires native Russian language, it is desirable to have working knowledge of Ukrainian or a major Central Asian language, and proficiency in English language is a must.
 
Into Eternity Still from the Film
Posted: 19/April/2016

CHERNOBYL MARATHON

Blinken OSA Archives

25-26 April 2016

 

The Blinken Open Society Archives invites you to its two-day series of programs spanning from morning till late at night, commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl. Evening programs include film and book launches and literary readings to help discuss the events that happened thirty years ago while also touching upon issues concerning the safety of nuclear power, individual and social responsibilities or sustainable and responsible energy management, taking into account aspects of the present as well as of the unforeseeable future.

During the day, visitors can view an exhibition of selected OSA documents on Chernobyl in the research room of the Archives. Secondary school students can take part in creative workshops examining issues such as how the main discourse surrounding energy safety and sustainability has changed in the past thirty years or what can be done – both individually and as a society – to ensure responsible energy management.

The series of programs wishes to highlight by its own marathon length how far-reaching the consequences of our present decisions about sustainability and energy are, and that everyone must be aware of this responsibility, not just the decision-makers.

 
CSERNOBIL_30 -  Creative workshop for high schools
Posted: 17/April/2016

CSERNOBIL_30 // Creative workshop for high schools // 25-26 April, 2016 // OSA Archívum

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, this creative workshop invites high school students to rethink the events in light of the archival materials available. The workshop further wishes to foster dialog about alternative energy resources and the potential responsibilities we bear to future generations of humanity.

 
Collage: Axel Braun, 2016
Posted: 14/April/2016

Thursday, 14 April 2016, 6:30 p.m.

ALEX FISCHER, CEU, School of Public Policy and WWF Switzerland


Political lobbying – how to effectively impact on a policy process
Presentation and talk with Axel Braun

Galeria Centralis of Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Arany János utca 32, 1051 Budapest

An event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program.

 
Politicised Landscapes - The Danube Case in a Global Context
Posted: 09/April/2016

Wednesday, 13 April 2016, 6:30 p.m.

JÁNOS VARGHA, Founder of Duna Kör

The Danube Case in a Global Context
Presentation and talk with Axel Braun

Galeria Centralis of Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Arany János utca 32, 1051 Budapest

An event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program.

 
Screening of the documentary Hitler's Last Year
Posted: 07/April/2016

The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives and the French Institute

Invite you to the screening of Hitler's Last Year

a two- part documentary film (52 minutes each) by David Korn- Brzoza

This prime-time documentary returns to the eleven months that preceded Hitler’s defeat and, using archival materials of which much was previously unseen, unveils entire chapters of the war that are largely unknown.

 
Directed by David Korn- Brzoza
Produced by Cinétévé (Lucie Pastor and Fabienne Servan Schreiber)
Authors: Olivier Wieviorka and David Korn-Brzoza

 
TUESDAY, 12 APRIL 2016. AT 6 :00 P.M.

 
Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.

 
Dehumanization: New approaches to understanding the politics of human nature
Posted: 02/April/2016

Dehumanization: New approaches to understanding the politics of human nature

6-8 April 2016

International and interdisciplinary conference with historians, scientists, philosophers and artists discussing the phenomenon of dehumanization from roughly the 18th century onwards.

Speakers:

Guido Abbattista, Eyja M. Brynjarsdóttir, Lukas Einsele, Victoria Esses, Friederike Eyssel, Nick Haslam, Carla Lessing, Edouard Machery, Mari Mikkola, Erika Milam, Gerald Posselt, Gunnar Sigvaldason, Magdalena Smieszek, David Livingstone Smith, Johannes Steizinger

Local commentators:

Laszlo Kontler, Andres Moles, Peter Molnar, Prem Kumar Rajaram, Simon Rippon, Natalie Sebanz, Hyaesin Yoon

Organized by: Maria Kronfeldner

 
Blinken OSA Archivum
Posted: 02/April/2016

Chief Archivist Position

Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives

Starting date: As soon as possible
Application deadline: Open until filled
Full or Part Time: Full -time

Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University is inviting applicants to the position of Chief Archivist. OSA (https://www.ceu.edu/unit/osa ) is one of the most important Cold War and human rights archives in the world. OSA, one of the initiators of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, is fully committed to free and open access. OSA is looking for a highly talented, innovative, socially committed and technologically skilled person with foresight and impeccable integrity.

 
Politicised Landscapes - Screening of Black Box’s “The Facility” (1988)
Posted: 27/March/2016

INVITATION to the third event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program

March 30, 2016 6:30 p.m.

 

 

Screening of Black Box’s "The Object" (1988) (English subtitles)

 

 

Discussion with the Directors, Ádám Csillag and Márta Elbert

Moderated by: Szilvia Nagy

The discussion is in Hungarian.

 

The screening is part of the POLITICIZED LANDSCAPE series organized in conjunction with the exhibition SOME KIND OF OPPOSITION by Axel Braun.

www.somekindofopposition.org

 

Blinken OSA Archívum

Arany János utca 32

5051 Budapest

www.osaarchivum.org

 
Image: Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, No Shelter from the Storm, film still, 20
Posted: 27/March/2016

 

INVITATION to the fourth event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program

Thursday, 31 March 2016, 6:30 p.m.

MAJA AND REUBEN FOWKES
Translocal Institute, Budapest

Walking without Footprints: A Curatorial Perspective
Presentation and Talk with Axel Braun

Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.

 
Aesthetics and Politics of “Amateur” and “Home” Identities
Posted: 26/March/2016

Aesthetics and Politics of “Amateur” and “Home” Identities 

 

March 29 /// 5.30 pm /// Blinken OSA Archivum, Arany János u. 32.

 

Panel discussion and film screenings related to the politics of an “amateur” identity and its relationship with aesthetic experimentation and the concept of “home” as an institutional identity within the context of two case studies: Casa Radio (Radio House Bucharest) and Memorial Houses.

Presentations:

“The origins, history and aims of the Radio House Bucuresti” by Daria Ghiu and Maria Balabas

“Amateur - experimentation and failure in photography” by Nicu Ilfoveanu

Moderators: Irina Botea and Jon Dean

Screenings: General Mood (Irina Botea & Jon Dean) /// Film Postale (Irina Botea & Nicu Ilfoveanu)

 
Politicised Landscapes - Screening of Ádám Csillag’s Film “Dunasaur” (1988)
Posted: 21/March/2016
INVITATION to the second event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program

Wednesday, 23 March 2016, 6:30 p.m.

 


Screening of Ádám Csillag’s Film “Dunasaur”
(1988) (in Hungarian with English subtitles)

Discussion with director Ádám Csillag and János Vargha, founder of Duna Kör

Moderator: Szilvia Nagy

 

 
Photo: Protest against the Rosia Montana Gold Mine Project in Bucharest, Romania
Posted: 16/March/2016
INVITATION to the first event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program

Friday, 18 March 2016, 6:30 p.m.

TAMARA STEGER
(CEU, Environmental and Social Justice Action Research Group)

What Happened to Environmental Justice?
Transition and Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe

Presentation and talk with Axel Braun

Galeria Centralis of Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Arany János utca 32, 1051 Budapest

 
The small truck of the Petőfi Circle in 1956 on 23 october on its way to Bem Sq.
Posted: 09/March/2016

On the sixtieth anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Blinken OSA Archives are launching a major series of public projects.

The Archives’ 1956 Digital Repository offers an insight into collections that have never been published or seen before, have been considered lost or have not been accessible to the public so far. Their purpose is to make people think and gain a better understanding of the lessons learned from the Revolution on the basis of these authentic documents.

 
Some Kind of Opposition
Posted: 24/February/2016

SOME KIND OF OPPOSITION


An exhibition by Axel Braun, based on films by Ádám Csillag and Fekete Doboz


Galeria Centralis, Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Arany János utca 32, 1051 Budapest


Opening: 10 March 2016, 6:30 p.m.


11 March – 1 May 2016, Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am - 6 pm, Closed on Mondays

 
The Mexican Suitcase exhibition - Finissage
Posted: 15/February/2016

Dance performance and Film Screening

EYES ON SPAIN. SCREENING THE CIVIL WAR MEMORIES

Film series in relation to the Mexican Suitcase Exhibition at the Galeria Centralis (Blinken OSA Archivum) in cooperation with the Embassy of Spain in Budapest and the Cervantes Institute.

 

Saturday, 20 February, 2016, at 6:30 pm

 

DANCE Performance by Góbi Rita Dance Company

With Dániel Szabó, Mátyás Regyep, and Gellért Zsédey (trumpet), Lőrinc Kéringer (drums)

Music: Benjamin Britten: Ballad of Heroes (1939), ca. 18’

 

Spanish Earth (1937), 52’
Documentary directed by Joris Ivens, commentary: Ernest Hemingway, camera: John Fernhout (John Ferno), editing: Helen van Dongen; music: Marc Blitzstein, Virgil Thomson; English

 
Victoria Harms
Posted: 11/February/2016

Victoria Harms - Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe

Road to Redemption:Why West Germans Care(d) about Hungary.

17 February 2016 at 5 pm, Reading Room, Blinken OSA Archivum

 
Soharóza
Posted: 05/February/2016

Screening the Civil War Memories and Special Performance by SOHARÓZA

Saturday, 13 February, 2016, at 6:30 pm

The Songs of the Spanish Civil War, ca. 15’

music performance by the Choir Soharóza


¡Ay Carmela! (1990), 102’

Comedy-drama, directed by Carlos Saura, 102’

Paulino and Carmela are husband and wife, troubadours touring the countryside during the Spanish Civil War. They are Republicans, and with their mute assistant, Gustavete, they journey into rebel territory by mistake. They are arrested, fear a firing squad, and receive a reprieve from an Italian Fascist commander who loves the theatre. He arranges a performance for his troops, bargaining with Paulino to stage a burlesque of the republic in exchange for the actors' freedom. Will the fiery and patriotic Carmela consent?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggziOiV04Uw

Supported by the Spanish Embassy in Budapest.