Curator: Judit Kallós

With the exhibitions held at the Károly Reich Gallery, the Festival continues the initiative launched by György Cziffra himself in 1973. By creating his foundation, the pianist Cziffra worked hard until the end of his life to support talented artists. In this spirit, he would also organise exhibitions in the chapel in Senlis. Following in his footsteps, the Festival announces a competition for the students of painting and image graphics at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. The competition winner will have the opportunity to exhibit their works in MOMkult.

Applications are accepted until 30 November 2023.

The call for proposals can be found at  https://cziffrafesztival.hu/palyazati-felhivas-egyeni-kiallitas-megvalositasara /

Attendance at the exhibition opening is free, but registration is required.

Please register via email to szervezes@cziffrafesztival.hu.

The exhibition can be viewed from 12 February to 31 March 2024, during the opening hours of the MOM Cultural Centre, depending on the programmes held there.

(A joint event of the Cziffra Festival, MOMkult and the Hungarian University of Fine Arts)

Supporters: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gabor Fund

Featured sponsor: MVM

In 1950, György Cziffra tried to leave Hungary with his wife and son but was arrested instead. His wife and he were sentenced to several years in prison, and his son was sent to a children’s home. This is how Cziffra and the Hungarian State Security crossed paths. The relevant file can be found in the records of the Historical Archives of the State Security Services.

The Archives’ temporary exhibition on the relationship between the world-famous pianist and the State Security –  also displaying the above document – can be seen from February 2024. Starting from a special point of view and through a number of previously unpublished records and sources, mainly using archival documents and photographs, the exhibition presents a period of Cziffra’s life and art, as well as the operation of State Security, in part through Cziffra’s person.

The exhibition is made even more colourful and varied thanks to the conversations and performances held by renowned artists and historians familiar with the given period.

Visiting the exhibition is free of charge.

(Joint event of the Cziffra Festival and the Historical Archives of the State Security Services)

Sponsor: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő Zrt.

Featured sponsor: MVM

In 1950, György Cziffra tried to leave Hungary with his wife and son but was arrested instead. His wife and he were sentenced to several years in prison, and his son was sent to a children’s home. This is how Cziffra and the Hungarian State Security crossed paths. The relevant file can be found in the records of the Historical Archives of the State Security Services.

The Archives’ temporary exhibition on the relationship between the world-famous pianist and the State Security –  also displaying the above document – can be seen from February 2024. Starting from a special point of view and through a number of previously unpublished records and sources, mainly using archival documents and photographs, the exhibition presents a period of Cziffra’s life and art, as well as the operation of State Security, in part through Cziffra’s person.

The exhibition is made even more colourful and varied thanks to the conversations and performances held by renowned artists and historians familiar with the given period.

Visiting the exhibition is free of charge.

(Joint event of the Cziffra Festival and the Historical Archives of the State Security Services)

Sponsor: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő Zrt.
Featured sponsor: MVM

Zsanett Szirmay’s interdisciplinary and interactive project Soundweaving transposes visual elements drawn from the motifs of Hungarian folk embroidery into a large-scale installation. In addition to the visual quality of the patterns, the samples also serve as interpretable and playable melodies. The essence of the installation is the sound mapping of traditional cross-stitch patterns known from embroideries transcribed to a music box using a comb and punch cards, this time, punched by the artist herself. These punched cards create the scores of the melodies. The patterns are based on the details of folk embroidery on shirts and cushions from the various regions in the Carpathian Basin, such as Bukovina, Kalotaszeg and Hungary. Embroideries turn into laser-cut fabric in the process of transformation, while the cross-stitch patterns are transformed into melody.

Zsanett SZIRMAY graduated in textile design from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest (MOME) in 2017.

The exhibition can be viewed from 13 February to 13 March, from Tuesday to Friday, from 10 am to 6 pm and on Saturday, from 10 am to 2 pm.

Visiting the exhibition is free of charge.

(A joint event of the György Cziffra Festival and Hegyvidék Gallery)

Supporters: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund
Featured sponsor: MVM

Zsanett Szirmay’s interdisciplinary and interactive project Soundweaving transposes visual elements drawn from the motifs of Hungarian folk embroidery into a large-scale installation. In addition to the visual quality of the patterns, the samples also serve as interpretable and playable melodies. The essence of the installation is the sound mapping of traditional cross-stitch patterns known from embroideries transcribed to a music box using a comb and punch cards, this time, punched by the artist herself. These punched cards create the scores of the melodies. The patterns are based on the details of folk embroidery on shirts and cushions from the various regions in the Carpathian Basin, such as Bukovina, Kalotaszeg and Hungary. Embroideries turn into laser-cut fabric in the process of transformation, while the cross-stitch patterns are transformed into melody.

Zsanett SZIRMAY graduated in textile design from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest (MOME) in 2017.

The exhibition can be viewed from 13 February to 13 March, from Tuesday to Friday, from 10 am to 6 pm and on Saturday, from 10 am to 2 pm.

Visiting the exhibition is free of charge.

(A joint event of the György Cziffra Festival and Hegyvidék Gallery)

Supporters: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund.
Featured sponsor: MVM

Program leírás

1-30 June 2022

(Joint event of the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Liszt Institute Brussels)

If God loves his creature, he will show him the greatest happiness and the greatest misery, says Thornton Wilder in his novel The Eighth Day of Creation. In the life of the world-famous Hungarian piano virtuoso György Cziffra (1921-1994), there was deprivation and plenty, persecution and celebration. This is the story of a career that is worthy of a novel, as part of a series of events celebrating the artist’s centenary.
Ernő Dohnányi helps the young man from a family of gypsy musicians to enter – at the age of eight! – Dohnohnányi, a young musician who, at the age of eight, was taught by Leó Weiner, György Ferenczy and Imre Keéri-Szántó. He was conscripted, fought in World War II, was taken prisoner by the Soviets, escaped and returned home to play the piano in the bars of the Pest nightlife after 1945. In 1950 he tries to escape abroad, but is captured and imprisoned with his wife. Only in 1956 is he able to emigrate to the West, to start a new life in France and finally start on the road to the world fame he deserves. But fate intervenes even in the life of the celebrated world star when his conductor son, J. György Cziffra died in a house fire in 1981 at the age of thirty-nine.
The exhibition traces the artist’s career, combining newspaper reports and reviews with chapters of his career – objective facts with subjective commentaries on his assessments. There are anecdotes from Cziffra’s fan Ferenc Puskás, who followed the artist from pub to pub in the Pest night to hear him play, and from the poet Győző Határ, who recalls Cziffra’s famous prisoner concert. The after-life of the work is also illuminated by the history of the Cziffra Foundation, the work of János Balázs, numerous documents from the Cziffra Festivals and Péter Eötvös’ Cziffra Psodia.
Curator: Eszter Veronika Kiss