The Arts Fuse Newsletter, March 13
Reviews of albums from rocker Kim Gordon and Hurray for the Riff Raff, fiction by Russian satirist Vladimir Sorokin, and a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of the Blind Boys of Alabama
From The Editor's Desk:
When Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán visited Donald Trump last week there was, predictably, a lot of talk about how conservative-driven culture wars could be used to win and consolidate governmental power. But how is culture itself faring in what has been described as an authoritarian country? According to NPR, a 2022 report by the Artistic Freedom Initiative concluded that “Christian and nationalist ideas have created ‘existential crises’ among individual artists and cultural institutions … that Orbán and his party, FIDESZ, have achieved this through a combination of consolidated state power and pressure on artists that has resulted in self-censorship.”
I wanted to get a sense of how things are going. I emailed a pair of English-speaking Hungarian stage directors and an American student who has recently studied in the country. Protests by artists against Orbán broke out in 2013, but the public was not interested. There is now a two-tiered system. Official cultural events draw on funds from the government, such as Art Market Budapest, “central and Eastern Europe’s leading international art fair.” In 2023 the event “presented some 100 art galleries and exhibitors from 30 countries in four continents including for the first time the Far East.” According to a fair organizer, the gathering “serves as a platform for shaping image and promot[ing] culture with the spotlight put this year on contemporary Roma art, on the art of design and on fine arts, and on visual culture in our digital age.”
In contrast to a fair in which a chunk of the international community aids and abets a government using the arts as a means to propagandize itself, artists who have chosen to remain in Hungary have come up with a brave alternative: “A lot of the Budapest art scene is genuinely quite underground — young artist collectives, cafes which host secret artist events at night, etc.” The OFF Biennale is a non-government funded art fair dedicated to strengthening “the local independent art scene” in a way that helps sustain “a democratic institution in the civil sphere.”
What lessons does this bifurcation have for us, particularly if the political winds in November blow to the right and existential crises inevitably follow? What is going on in Hungary is a valuable reminder of our need to nurture free-spirited homegrown art and artists that are not dependent on government funding or corporate beneficence.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Book Review: “Spirit of the Century” — The Inspiring History of the Blind Boys of Alabama
By Noah Schaffer
This is a riveting celebration of the Blind Boys of Alabama’s glorious and often unpredictable musical journey.
Coming Attractions through March 26 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
Concert Review: Hurray for the Riff Raff -- Ringing Loud and Clear
By Paul Robicheau
The album The Past is Still Alive hones Alynda Segarra’s songs to an accessible Americana that allows their travelogue-tinged tales to nestle in ways both literal and metaphorical. It’s one of the best records of the nascent new year.
WATCH CLOSELY: “Griselda” — Queenpin of a Criminal Empire
By Peg Aloi
Sofia Vergara’s performance as drug queenpin Griselda Blanco, in the limited series Griselda, is career-defining and unforgettable.
Rock Album Review: Kim Gordon’s “The Collective” — Ensnared in Anxieties
By Steve Erickson
The album’s layers of thick and swampy sound make Kim Gordon’s anxious point.
Opera Album Review: A Resplendent First Recording of a Forgotten Opera by the Composer of “Manon” and “Thaïs”
By Ralph P. Locke
With Egyptian-born Amina Edris in the title role, Massenet’s opera engages the musical and theatrical imagination with its rich characterizations of Greek mythic adventures.
Book Review: More Hilarious Satiric Depravity From Vladimir Sorokin — The Tsars My Destination
By Peter Keough
Russian satirist Vladimir Sorokin’s excremental vision, filled with daft, Boschian perversities, triumphs again in two new translations, “Red Pyramid,” a dazzling and disgusting collection of stories published from 1981 to 2018, and the 1999 novel "Blue Lard," an epic of sublime and hilarious perversion.
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Questions, comments, concerns?
Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
