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He was asked to start an acting class next year, but vowed not to set foot in the University of Theater and Motion Picture Arts until a board of directors headed by Attila Vidnyánszky swept student and teacher applications from the table. Viktor Bodó also spoke at the demonstration on Monday because he had not done so for a long time. Interview.
He said he only wants to talk about the SZFE case so that nothing distracts from this issue. What risks do you see for speeches like yours?
It is difficult to judge which pronunciation will get where it can start. I didn’t consider what effect what I was saying might have. The important thing is that I can finally express myself and live up to the invitation of the students, which is tremendously honorable. In the first moment of resistance, I was able to speak my mind, publicly, not just in private conversations. I haven’t done this so far, sorry. I should have spoken many years ago. But this is what my generation needs to learn from: with a few exceptions, like Árpád Schilling, we have not learned to represent our opinion publicly. To do this, you must take a risk and think that it is enough. Every speech counts, every gesture that expresses solidarity. It is not necessary to tolerate the increasingly serious events that are taking place in the country.
How have you been in contact with the university in recent years?
Together with Gábor Székely, I was a professor of directing. The class graduated when the Sputnik Shipping Company (Viktor Bodó’s company – ed.) It has expired. After that, I deliberately did not want to be in university, nor in Hungary. I think it makes sense to work at the university if there is long-term work, I don’t consider the one or two week courses to be effective. Since I graduated, I’ve always done something here: I was a volunteer observer, a volunteer teaching assistant, just so I could learn. However, I was unable to take on long-term duties while working abroad. I recently received an application from the Theater Institute to start a class starting in 2021. I saw the meaning of this, I stood up. This is when you organize a family that wants a whole person, and maybe one can be arranged every year and I have to live at home. These are difficult decisions that I have made. Then came the current situation. I don’t do that anymore.
On Monday night in the drama, he said that he would not take the leadership of the class in the current structure, nor would he even “set foot in the institution.” There is also a reading in his exhibition that will then start an acting class in place of Vidnyánszky’s man.
We created a forty-page educational material, a five-year curriculum in which we are now putting the finishing touches. We will forward it to other authorities for comment and then we will post it. From that material, it becomes clear who has an idea of how to teach acting, film acting, theater for so many years, fitting into the university system. If someone else puts a similar quality material next to that, I say they do, as it can show that they are ready. The biggest problem in this case is that no professional argument has ever been made by the other party.
We could only hear power and ideological arguments. The rest are lies and fabrications. This is revealing.
On Wednesday, the resigned deputies from the Senate met with Attila Vidnyánszky, but according to the news, the positions did not converge. What kind of race can you imagine running out of events? Do you have an optimistic and pessimistic scenario in your head?
In Hungary, an optimistic scenario is no longer written. Although now, thanks to the students, perhaps hope has shone. There is apathy and a mixture of indifference, fear and selfishness, but I would not condemn anyone about it. However, as if the granite had cracked now, this was already evident in the capital. We need to blow this current flame as long as we can. I am not an optimist, but an idealist, I try to focus on the tasks at hand at the moment. Hope and trust because it keeps you alive.
Whoever lets go of this, I think, will age for ten years, be sad, bitter, and will never forgive themselves for not participating in the current action. The entire profession should have a voice.
There is no need for a test anymore, I agree with the students on this. There has been no trial for years, there have always been situations prepared, even in the case of the Theater Law. There is no point in negotiating. It only makes sense that Attila Vidnyánszky goes back three and realizes that this is a professional failure. He realizes that the longer it takes, the more embarrassing the case will be for them. From the outside, it is becoming increasingly clear that his sole objective is to assert his own power. If you really want to do something for Hungarian culture and within that for the University of Theater and Cinematographic Arts, don’t tie your support to just one person. It does not require Attila Vidnyánszky or the other members of the board of trustees, especially if they were not democratically elected, taking into account the professional recommendations of the Senate. You just have to give the scholarship. Taxpayers’ money cannot be used as a blackmail fund. We are talking about renovation of buildings, maybe normal scholarships, normal salaries. It was also a new building, of course, it always said “anno SZFE did not need it”, which is also a downright lie, unfortunately.
In the summer, there were sporadic reactions of solidarity to the SZFE case. Now, since the university occupation, more and more university institutes, departments and arts organizations have defended the autonomy of the university. Did you expect the SZFE resistance to be of such importance?
After the news emerged that Attila Vidnyánszky would be the chairman of the board of directors, the students began to organize, form forums and coordinate. It was very nice to see the teaching staff take a step back, which I consider to be a morally and strategically correct move. The students, on the other hand, had a hard time, but they got through it. That they have come so far is exemplary. Very few self-organizing communities are capable of this and we were sure it would have an impact. But there are situations that are so depressed, that there is nothing to lose no matter what the outcome of the actions is. We were at such an end point, there was no tactic in the actions of the teachers and students.
Do you see a parallel between the events around SZFE and the case of the summer index, the joint termination gesture after the reorganization attempts?
The students must have cared that the Index matter was closed. There too many hearts contracted and terrible tension arose. Sure, the crowd shut down the case, thinking something had fallen back, but these grievances are not stored too deep. Even after the demonstration on Monday, I got a lot of reactions from which it came, many people cannot express their opinions but somehow want to support our cause. Let’s not forget that even the Theater Law dealt with the government’s revenge against the capital. Desperate and helpless rage also increased. You can walk away from events for a while, but there is a level where something kicks in again and then the stored energies explode as well. Eventually it turns into a conviction, that it was silent helplessness. Then you need to activate.
Not only members of the university senate, but also other top professors have announced that they will no longer teach at SZFE. Many, but not all. Is there a common thought that faculty should stand up at the same time, or at least not start teaching in the fall semester?
I don’t know what the professors agreed with each other, I’m not a member of the faculty. If someone has taken responsibility for a class, a close personal relationship has developed, it cannot be set aside. Judgments on existential questions cannot be judged either, and our case can be successful precisely because we do not make judgments, we do not speak the language that our enemy, who has not chosen us but takes us as a victim. You should not lower yourself to that standard. Maybe that will change the country. The current generation of students no longer use this mask. Those whom they now fight are lost figures, disbelievers. They should step back, not put themselves in a decision-making position.
In a normal country, the organizations now led by Attila Vidnyánszky would ask themselves to leave.
Róbert Alföldi wrote an open letter to Zoltán Rátóti, finally asking him to talk about the violent occupation of Attila Vidnyánszky. Do you believe in the power of similar personal messages and requests?
I think all possible cultivated tools should be used. If an open letter can be effective, so be it. We did not learn war strategies, we did artistic training, that’s what we understood. What a person’s good feeling, instinct and sense of justice dictate must be heard.
Featured image: Márton Mohos /24.hu
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