Around 30 activists from the group “United for Contemporary Art” have been occupying the entrance hall of Budapest’s Ludwig Museum in the Palace of the Arts since last week. The protest, which is still ongoing, is directed at the “lack of transparency” in the selection process of the Ludwig’s new director.
When Barnabas Bencsik’s contract expired at the end of February, the Ministry of Human Resources (which is also responsible for culture) set up a committee to suggest a successor for the popular director. But the committee was criticised for being secretive and biased (four of the six members came from the ministry), particularly after proposing the relatively unknown Julia Fabenyi. “The functioning of Hungarian public administration lacks transparency and, for this reason, does not serve the needs of its citizens,” says the protest group in a statement. “But it’s not just about the Ludwig Museum,” says Reuben Fowkes, of the Budapest-based research platform Translocal, who took part in the protest. “It’s about the fact that amateurs and politicians are taking over the arts; about the way things are being done in Budapest, not just what is being done.”
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