A new permanent local history exhibition opened on Wednesday in the Déri Museum in Debrecen. The exhibition was realized with a grant of one hundred million forints received from the Hungarian Genius Program.
At the opening of the exhibition, which elaborates the history of the city of Cívis in seven chapters, Szilárd Demeter, chairman of the board of trustees of the Hungarian Genius Program, said that Hungarian museology and the Hungarian cultural institution system cannot be value-neutral.
“For us, the Hungarian national culture is primary, and not because it is better or worse than any other culture, but because it is ours,” he emphasized.
According to the general director of the Petőfi Literary Museum, “that’s why neither the Ottomans, nor the Austrians, nor the communists could take it from us, and that’s why we are and will be there at the grave of every power that wants to invade”.
Demeter Szilárd put it like this, the last castles are the keys to the nation’s crisis resistance.
He added: Debrecen is now both a regional center and an end fortress, and for this reason, the local history exhibition of the Déri Museum cannot be value-neutral.
He called being from Debrecen important and said, “if the present is supported by the past, it can also give the future the right direction.”
The chairman of the board of trustees called will and love for the homeland and homeland much more important than ratio in planning the future.
He said that if the visitor sees the new Debrecen local history exhibition with his heart, he will become a Debrecen, wherever he was born.
László Cservenyák, the vice-president of the Association of Hungarian Rural Museums, spoke, among other things, about the fact that there are more than 800 museum spaces in Hungary, of which around 140 are exhibition spaces that have reached museum status.
Their association currently has 120 members, including major Hungarian museums in the Carpathian Basin, thus representing universal Hungarian culture.
According to the specialist, new forms of communication with visitors need to be found, and this was also helped by the Hungarian Genius Program, whose resources benefited more than a hundred museums.
László Papp (Fidesz-KDNP), the mayor of Debrecen, said that dealing with our own past, history, and culture means showing hope and giving strength to others in a Europe burdened by wars and hit by an identity crisis.
According to the city manager, this mentality, striving for survival and strengthening self-identity, has always been decisive in Debrecen in the past centuries.
At the same time, the effort to preserve identity was always intertwined with renewal – said László Papp.
János Angi, the director of the Déri Museum, indicated that in the new, 250 square meter exhibition space, the world of the Cívisek will be presented and divided into seven chapters.
He called it an important aspect that the new permanent exhibition represents the structure of the museum’s multifaceted collection, and that objects that have not been on display so far will also be included in the exhibition space.
(MTI)
Photo: Interested in the new, permanent local history exhibition entitled World of Cívisek on the opening day at the Déri Museum in Debrecen on June 21, 2023. MTI/István Derencsényi
