Whatch the lecture recording

Edit András, PhD, art historian, art critic is a senior fellow at the Institute of Art History, Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (currently Eötvös Loránd Research Network); visiting professor of the Central European University, History Department. Her main field of research is: Eastern and Central European modern and contemporary art, art theory, critical theories, nationalism and populism, gender studies. She is a regular contributing critic in Hungarian and international art magazines (Artmargins, e-flux, IDEA. Arts+Society, Third text, Springerin), and was a long-year New York correspondent in various magazines. She is author of theoretical studies published in international catalogues and volumes. She is editor of numerous catalogues and books. She published two books with the selection of her own theoretical writings and essays in Hungarian (a third is forthcoming). She is a participant of numerous international conferences and workshops as invited lecturer and keynote speaker. She had courses and lectures all around the region (Iasi, Tallinn, Poznan, Bratislava, Vienna etc.) She is member of the advisory boards of the Piotr Piotrowski Research Center (Poznan) and the magazines Ars Hungarica, Artmargins, ART East/Central online Journal and The journal Kunstiteaduslikke uurimusi / Studies on Art and Architecture, Tallinn.

Amorous Nation

The presentation is about love-affairs with Socialism and Nationalism.

In the existing Socialism women were declared equal, and emancipation was regarded accomplished. However, the hero embodying the whole community was men by default even if the relationship between the male leaders and female members of the societies differed greatly in various Socialist countries.

As of nationalism, since it emerged at about the same time as the concept of masculinity, the nation state could be seen as a masculinist enterprise legitimizing the dominance of men over women. Nationalism and neo-nationalism are not even bothered with covering their gendered nature with their rhetoric; nation state is declaratively and essentially a hegemonic masculine institution.

The presentation explores the different attitudes of artists towards the leaders of Socialist states, such as Tito, during the time of Socialism and after wondering if the love towards the Alfa-man was a real one or rather a spell. What about the profound and eternal love for the fathers of the nation, whether carved in stone or existing as omnipresent, flesh and blood figures of our daily life?

The questions of who is the seducer and who is seduced, and also whose love is returned and whose is unrequited and thus doomed, will be posed.