Basalt - Exhibition Opening

Basalt. The Layers of Oblivion

On the 70th Anniversary of the Closure of Forced-labor Camps in Hungary

Opening event: September 12, 2024, Thursday, 6:00 p.m.

Opening remarks by Iván Székely, curator of the exhibition

Opening speech by Rudolf Ungváry, writer

The history of the forced-labor camp in the Badacsony basalt mine is missing from history books, and its documents have disappeared. On the 70th anniversary of the closure of the labor camps, the Blinken OSA Archivum’s research unearthed fragmentary sources, interviewing surviving Badacsony basalt miners and members of a new generation committed to uncovering the story. Our exhibition attempts to reconstruct the functioning of the labor camp, its human relations, but also the mechanisms of forgetting and the absence of memory. The exhibition design by Péter Szalay depicts these islands of memory and forgetting, Tamás Zányi’s multi-channel, immersive sound installation evokes acoustic images, Zsuzsa Debre’s documentary film features a witness of the times, and Lenke Szilágyi’s photographs present the visual world that welcomes visitors to the ruins and the abandoned basalt mine today.

The recording is in Hungarian.

The exhibition is open until October 27, 2024. Entrance is free.