Imre Makovecz lived and worked for rescuing the Hungarian spirit, his inheritance lives on and awaits to be continued in the Carpathian Basin, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the opening of the Budapest centre and archive named after the Kossuth and Ybl Miklós Award winning architect on Monday.
“Imre Makovecz lived and worked for rescuing the Hungarian spirit, this is what he expressed with his buildings, plans and writings, and this is what he taught us, too: self-awareness and national awareness, the science of connecting together Hungarian communities detached from one another, the science of connecting together the sky and the Earth”, the Prime Minister said in remembrance of the architect who died in 2011.
As he pointed out, Imre Makovecz’s life work is a summary of the spirituality which he brought up from the deepest layers of Hungarian national culture and presented to us in the purest form. We only have a single task: to build, to look after and to research this exceptional heritage, Mr Orbán stressed, adding that the opening of the centre can therefore be summed up in a single brief sentence today: we shall carry on. “This is more than just a museum, this is more than just an archive”, he said.
Mr Orbán highlighted: we are living in a country today which is proud of its national values and national authors and creative artists; we had to wait for this a long time. We all remember the times – it was not so long ago – when the preservation of the Hungarian spirit was nothing more than the losing battle of a handful of committed individuals, families and organisations, he added.
The Prime Minister pointed out that there are now institutions which are dedicated to this mission: primarily thanks to Imre Makovecz, we have an Academy of Arts functioning as a public body and a Collection of Hungarian Values. These institutions ensure that none of the tangible and spiritual heritage of the greatest creators of the Hungarian nation should be lost, he stressed.
Mr Orbán further mentioned that Imre Makovecz believed, as he put it, in the existence of a second Hungary even during the years of communism and during the most chaotic years that followed the fall of communism when he had to fight for the implementation of each and every one of his plans.
“He believed in a strong country which does not slavishly follow foreign trends, and likewise cannot be confined within physical limits”, the Prime Minister said. He added: he also always knew whom he should struggle with for this vision, where and how. He was a guardian and spiritual leader of this second Hungary for decades.
He had a way with everyone, from physical workers all the way to the Prince of Wales, and “in his sudden bouts of anger, he was quite willing to tell anyone who did not understand that he can never compromise on anything, including me at times, to get lost”, Mr Orbán said.
The Prime Minister highlighted that Imre Makovecz’s life work is a system of definitive answers expressed in yes and no: “yes to the nation, yes to villages, yes to family, yes to folk culture; and no to the colourless, odourless, inorganic, multicultural plastic world driven by international money markets which would, if we let it, surround us and melt us into itself in a minute”.
Imre Makovecz was born on 20 November 1935. The Budapest centre and archive named after him was opened in the 12th district of the capital on the anniversary of his birth.