With its enchanting architecture, technical solutions, special installations and its magical synergy and balance with nature, the House of Hungarian Music (designed by the renown Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto and inaugurated in January 2022) has provoked a vibrant academic and public debate. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Japanese-Hungarian kinship narrative in the Orbán government’s nationalist discourse, the "Eastern Opening" in Hungarian foreign policy and the roots and manifestations of contemporary Japanophilia. Relying in particular on political anthropology and visual culture studies, the author will use an interdisciplinary and interpretive approach in order to capture the veiled messages of what has been portrayed as the "palace of musical miracles" in the "Parnassus of Hungarian culture" (the recently renovated Civic Park in Budapest). She will argue that the House of Hungarian Music and other monumental and expensive projects like the Hungarian pavilion at the Osaka Expo and the (plan of the new) National Gallery are manifestations of the government’s intention to resurrect Turanism and of its promise to facilitate the spiritual renewal of Hungary (and Europe).

Authors:
Eszter Salgó, John Cabot University, Italy

About the Presenter(s)
Prof. Eszter Salgó (Ph.D.) teaches at the Political Science and International Affairs Department of John Cabot University (Rome). In her interdisciplinary research she explores the nexus between aesthetics and politics.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule

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