Presentations

The Szőnyi Museum is an original and authentic museum of housing, where old furniture and objects add to the charm of the place. One of these objects is a 19th century stereoscope, a viewing cabinet in which pictures photographed on a glass plate can be placed and "made" into a stereoscopic image, which is part of the estate of István Szőnyi's father-in-law, József Bartóky. Gergely Radovics, a collector of glass images from the period, brought and showed some of his collection, including glass images from the First World War. Looking at these photos in the stereoscope - the battlefield of Verdun, the soldiers with haggard eyes peering out of the trenches, the military equipment, the airships, the civilians and soldiers surrounding crashed planes, the worn and muddy uniforms, the everyday moments of war - the idea came to mind that we should share this with others. István Szőnyi himself was at the front, serving in the army from the beginning to the end of the Great War, and was only 20 when he was conscripted. A few drawings, soldier portraits, scenes from a sanatorium and a few terse letters to his father survive. Szőnyi had been sent to the front as a first-year college student, so he was not yet an artist, and could not have been a member of the Kunstgruppe, the wartime Artists' Group, like the painters László Mednyánszky and József Rippl-Rónai, who documented the war with their works. The wartime propaganda machine included painters, filmmakers and photographers on both sides who were present on the battlefields and recorded what they saw.

The lecture of collector Gergely Radovics will present these wartime glass paintings, made in the technique of the time, whose shocking, disturbing honesty makes the everyday life of war more real than any history book or historical film. Gergely Radovics will introduce his lecture by talking about the Artists' Guild and István Szőnyi's war years. We welcome all those who are not afraid to look into the past through a stereoscope, where everything is as it seems.

At the end of the programme, participants will be able to look into the stereoscope and experience the unique spatial reality of seeing glass images in 3D.

Duration: about 1,5 hours
Participation fee: 2.500 Ft/person

Due to the limited number of places, the event is subject to registration.