Position of United for Contemporary Art (UCA) – May 15, 2013

Position of United for Contemporary Art

United for Contemporary Art has been demonstrating in the Ludwig Museum since last Thursday for transparency of the tender system, for autonomy of institutions and for a professional alliance.

Among those joining the alliance are professionals on the contemporary art scene with experience spanning several decades and an international overview and network (art historians, curators, critics), who are known both in Hungary and abroad, as well as artists with long experience behind them, university professors, the most successful contemporary gallerists and private collectors, as well as young people in command of the most up-to-date information: united in the group are those who are active on a daily basis in the sphere of contemporary art – and in smaller part, a public that is informed and committed to contemporary art.

Why are we demanding a dissolution of the secrecy of tender materials and the proceedings of the committee, as well as the obligation of the committee members to confidentiality and secrecy?                                                                       We are well aware that the current procedure is in accordance with the dictates of the law. Nevertheless:

1. There are preconditions for the professional acceptance of the confidentiality of tender materials and the proceedings of the committee within the process of naming directors. The Ministry has also made reference to these, which appear to be fulfilled in the case of well-functioning international examples. Such a precondition is for those concerned in the profession (here: artists and art professionals) to be convinced that the tender and decision-making process led by the decision-maker has been consulted and agreed with the profession, with their experience, recommendations and directives taken into consideration in its formulation. They must be convinced that directly included in the decision are: a.) those who are competent in the given field; and b.) that government (political) interests are not placed before professional aspects. The current government, however, has not strived for the attainment of such assurance (similarly to previous governments); furthermore, with its practices up till now, it has even more forcefully undermined all that has come before.

The government dispositions of the past few years concerning culture have been born consistently with a lack of professional consultation, and without taking professional arguments and viewpoints into consideration (to name just a few: the unjustified endowment of the status and authority of public body to the Hungarian Academy of the Arts (MMA); the incorporation of the Hungarian National Gallery (MNG) into the Museum of Fine Arts; the systematic liquidation of autonomy of cultural institutions; the proportionment of the Hungarian Academy of the Arts (MMA) into an ideological monopoly position; the series of decisions endangering the operability of institutions through a withdrawal of resources, etc.).

 The Ministry, instead of professional consultation and agreement, communicates with the concerned fields through communiqués and the press, one-sidedly. Over the past three years, there has been evidence of such manoeuvres, disproportionateness and ambiguities around a number of institutional change of directors (Új Színház/New Theatre, Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle Budapest, Trafó – House of Contemporary Arts, National Theatre), in which the majority of practitioners in the profession corroborated the conviction that decision-makers ajudicated their positions primarily according to political concerns. The above extends to the tender announced for the position of Ludwig Museum director, and to its handling.

If the dissolution of confidentiality and secrecy does not take place; moreover, if even this intention cannot be felt, it is unavoidable that the conviction will be reinforced among those concerned, that the aim of such secrecy is none other than the free assertion of political and not professional interests.

 2. Aside from the dissolution of confidentiality and secrecy in the tenders and proceedings of the committees, the Ministry has countless possibilities of increasing its transparency. Thus, we do not see any obstacles to the Ministry satisfying our demands below, as a first step in re-establishing confidence and trust.

We therefore respectfully ask the Ministry of Human Resources to:

• forthwith and in writing, provide an explanation for why they did not announce the tender in due time, in the interest of avoiding uncertainty for several months, which currently has placed the institution in an unprecedented difficult situation;

• forthwith and in writing, explain why they did not invite the Ludwig Foundation to take part in the committee;

• at the latest, following the appointment, to publish the winning tender, in so much as it is not yet public;

• forthwith and in writing, to render transparent the professional concerns put into effect in making up the committee, also touching upon those, for instance, that seemed dispensable to the representative of the Hungarian section of AICA, and which rendered necessary the inclusion of four (4) employees of the Ministry;

• at the latest, following the appointment, without delay and in writing, to justify the decision by informing in an itemised way, the professional arguments taken into consideration;

• in so far as the writer of the losing tender agrees, to place the two tenders in an itemised comparison, according to professional concerns;

• in so far as the tender that has run its course is determined for some reason to be null and void, to be followed by a new announcement for a tender, we demand: the precision of tender provisions and criteria,

• and the inclusion of professional representatives in the process, as well as fully comprehensive transparency of the process before the public!

 With its radical gestures, United for Contemporary Art has reacted to the steps taken, as mentioned above by the Ministry, which have consistently neglected from consideration the arguments and criticisms of the profession – of which the tender for the director of the Ludwig Museum is only an actual example.

15 May 2013

ludwiglepcso@gmail.com