Installation, objects, texts, two-channel sound
2021

“Rabbi and cantor David Victor Tulman, who became known as the ‘red rabbi’ was a real historical personality who had to flee because of the role he had played in the Hungarian Soviet Republic  between March – August of 1919.  

The first stop of his lengthy wandering was Pannonhalma Abbey, the Benedictine monastery in West Hungary, where he supposedly took refuge for a few months in 1920.

Szabolcs KissPál’s work is one of the possible narratives of his story, a reconstruction of these months through objects and stories. The structure and narrative position of the storytelling are defined by the logic of unveiling, investigation and remembrance as well as the intention to set a memorial to this historical figure. 

The Pannonhalma episode of Tulman’s adventurous life is recomposed through small details in which Judaism and Christianity, the history of events and political contexts are blended. The subjective and historical pattern, in which all the small details gain a symbolic character and significance, is shaped by a number of factors ranging from the over-a-century long period that has passed since the event through the selective nature of memory to the sources and local findings available. The sacred mountain, Mons Sacer, simultaneously hides and unveils this story. 

The installation tells the story of these few months in three chapters. The first one follows the traces left behind by a set of objects found in an ammunition box and tries to solve their mystery through investigation. The second recreates a conversation found in Tulman’s autobiography thus establishing the historical and intellectual space for the narration while the third one, a memorial plaque summarizing the events, builds on the gesture of memorialization.

However, the most important aspect of the work is the questions raised by the artist. How do we look back on a hundred-year-old story from today’s Hungary? How do we depict a person who living through these times has never become a distinguished figure of the Grand History? Do personal stories offer us any knowledge of a historical period that is still interwoven with traumas? Is our way of thinking influenced by the fact that we want to give credibility to the sources? What debates will the dynamics of genuineness and speculation generate? How do we interpret the transformation of religious and political ideologies, the traumas of the buried, forgotten and hidden past? 

How do we know that we are on the right track?”

Zsófia Frazon, Flóra Gadó 
  

Acknowledgments: 
Ilona Ásványi, Zoltán Boros, Tamás Dénes (Pannonhalma Abbey Archives), Sári Ember, Zsófia Frazon, Flóra Gadó, Katalin Kim, Csilla Pup (The Vas County Office of The Hungarian National Archives), Éva Samodai, Ádám Schönberger, Rita Szabó (The Jókai Mór City Library of Pápa), Péter Tanai, Zsuzsanna Toronyi (MILEV), Asztrik Várszegi.

Shalom – audio 

Co-authors and protagonists: Asztrik Várhegyi (OSB) and rabbi Gábor Fináli

Dramaturgist: Kriszta Kovács

Memorial plaque

Kosztyu Stone-cutters Ltd., Üröm (HU)