[spectre] Obituary : Katalin Neray

[Geert Lovink]

> From: "bszechy" <bszechy at yahoo.com>
>
> Obituary : Katalin Neray
>
>  It is with great sadness that we have been informed in the Paris 
> Bureau of the death of our
>  friend and colleague, Katalin Neray, in Budapest, following a short 
> illness. We reproduce
>  below the obituary that has been forwarded to us. "Art is not about 
> you or about me. It is
>  not about us. It is about we". Lawrence Weiner
>  It is with a great sense of loss that the Ministry of Education and 
> Culture, the Ludwig
>  Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art and the Néray (Harsányi) family 
> announce the
>  passing of Katalin Néray, Director of the Ludwig Museum in Budapest?
>  after a serious illness on September 5, 2007, at the age of 66.
>  From 1984 to 1992, Katalin was the Director of Budapest's Exhibition 
> Hall (Kunsthalle),
>  and became Director of the Ludwig Museum at the end of 1992. She 
> organized hundreds
>  of exhibitions, both in Hungary and abroad, and was the curator of 
> the Hungarian Pavilion
>  at the Venice Biennale four times. She also served as the Hungarian 
> and Eastern European
>  curator of the S?o Paulo Biennial several times and was the chief 
> curator for Manifesta 1 in
>  1996.
>  Katalin Néray served as the President of the Hungarian Section of 
> AICA for ten years. She
>  was a member of ICOM, CIMAM, IKT, and of the Advisory Board of the 
> C3 : Center for
>  Culture & Communication Foundation, as well as the Art History 
> Committee of the
>  Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She published regularly in journals 
> and catalogues both
>  domestic and international.
>  For her extensive activities and accomplishments, she was awarded the 
> Munkácsy Prize in
>  1987, the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 
> 1988 and honored
>  with both the Order of Merit of the Cultural Minister of Poland and 
> the Klára Martyn Prize
>  in 1999. She received the Széchenyi Prize in 2005. More recently she 
> was honored with
>  the Knight Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 
> 2006.
>  Throughout her career, Katalin Néray played an active role in 
> familiarizing international
>  and national audiences with contemporary art both Hungarian and 
> international.
>  Katalin Néray's passing represents a tremendous loss for the world of 
> contemporary
>  Hungarian art. The Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ludwig 
> Museum will hold a
>  memorial service at the Festival Theater of the Palace of Arts, 
> Budapest.
>
>  Call for artists
>  The Hungarian Multicultural Center, AIR-Hungary program is an 
> international meeting
>  point for the arts.
>  Its aim is to support and encourage contemporaryartistic creation, 
> research and debate.
>  One of HMC's main activities is its Artist in Residence Program. The 
> purpose of this
>  program is to offer a platform to promote the exchange of artistic 
> discourses from artists
>  with different artistic backgrounds and from different geographical 
> origins. The program
>  is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas in order to broaden 
> creative horizons. By
>  encouraging this cultural diversity, we also hope to be able to 
> update the debate between
>  the artists themselves and between other professionals from the art 
> world and the general
>  public. HMC considers art as a dynamic social force that is capable 
> of inspiring
>  individuality and of defining groups. Our Artist in Residence Program 
> also includes
>  exhibitions, artist talks, film, workshops and other activities. HMC 
> is  planning and
>  exchange program with other European  Artist in Residence Program, so 
> that  the resident
>  artists would be able to get in touch with other artistic centers.
>
>  For application form or questions regarding the International Artist 
> Residency
>  please write to bszechy at yahoo.com