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BUDAPEST A polarizing project by the government of Viktor Orban, Hungarys far-right prime minister, to transform the historic City Park here into a museum district has produced its first building: the House of Music, Hungary.

Designed by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, the cultural center, which opened on Jan. 23, offers exhibitions, education and concerts. An interactive permanent show guides visitors through the historical development of Western music; celebrates the contribution of Hungarian composers like Liszt, Bartok and Kodaly; and traces Hungarys folk music tradition to its Central Asian roots. One room, painted in the colors of the Hungarian flag, features video displays on the countrys political history and famous athletes, with the national anthem as a soundtrack.

Yet beyond the House of Musics glass walls, which are animated by reflections of construction elsewhere in the park, this new building is mired in controversy.

Critics have said that the governments plans to develop the 200-year-old City Park into a museum district disturbs the natural environment, deprives locals of much-needed public space and raises concerns about corruption. But those behind the project say the site has always been more than a public park, and that the undertaking is Europes largest urban development project. In a speech, Orban described the transformation as an unfinished work of art.

In 2012, Orbans government announced an ambitious plan to transform the park, in disrepair after decades of neglect, into a district of five museums. The estimated cost at the time was about $250 million, but that had ballooned to nearly five times original projections by 2017.

There had been a virtual consensus that the park needed work, but the government and park conservationists disagreed about the fate of the parks natural features.

A special legal designation allowed the project to skirt existing development rules, meaning the municipality of Budapest had little say over the governments plans. And legislation adopted by Orbans party placed the park under the purview of a newly created, state-owned company controlled by his allies. Sandor Lederer of K-Monitor, an anti-corruption watchdog, said that public records indicate the House of Music alone had cost Hungarian taxpayers as much as $100 million.

The project is a good example of how public investments work under Orban, Lederer said. There are no real needs and impact assessments done; citizens and affected parties are excluded from consultations and planning.

He added that poor planning and corruption have benefited companies widely seen as Orbans clientele, saying, Not only present, but also future generations will pay the costs of another Orban pet project.

Laszlo Baan, the government commissioner overseeing the project, declined to be interviewed, but a spokeswoman said in a statement that the government had so far spent 250 billion Hungarian Forint, about $800 million, on the project. Fujimotos office did not respond to an interview request.

In 2016, private security guards clashed with park conservationists at the future site of the House of Music. Gergely Karacsony, an opposition politician who was elected mayor of Budapest in 2019, did not attend the House of Musics Jan. 22 unveiling, which took place on the Day of Hungarian Culture, a national celebration. The building, he wrote on social media, was born not of culture, but of violence.

In a radio interview, Karacsony recently likened construction in a public park to urinating in a stoop of Holy Water: You can do it, but it ruins why we are all there.

Orban, however, has sought to frame the museum district as a legacy project, and he has used it as a cudgel in his own war against what he sees as the Wests cultural decline. Unveiling the House of Music, he attacked critics of the parks transformation as leftists who opposed beauty.

The Hungarian nation never forgets the names of those who built the country, Orban said in a speech at the ceremony, adding that detractors are not remembered, because the Hungarian nation simply casts them out of its memory.

He added that national elections in April would be a period that would end debate over the future of the park.

Since returning to power in 2010, Orban and his allies have taken over public media, as well as most of the countrys private media, to promulgate far-right conspiracy theories, attack the regimes critics and advance Orbans culture war (which has also reached academia and the arts.) Hungarys cities are currently blanketed in political ads featuring Orbans main political opponent as Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies.

Orbans political machine interprets culture as something that must be occupied or conquered, said Krisztian Nyary, an author who grew up near City Park. They are only capable of thinking in terms of political logic, but culture is different.

He added: Do we need a House of Music? I dont know. I see its a beautiful building, and Im sure theyll have exciting events, but it doesnt belong there. Repurposing the park transforms its function, he said, jeopardizing a valuable natural environment that has served as the lungs of surrounding neighborhoods.

The park is bordered by the Sixth and Seventh districts, which Gabor Kerpel-Fronius, Budapests deputy mayor, said have the fewest green spaces in the city. The museum district, he added, could have been planned elsewhere, such as in a rundown rust zone nearby.

Imre Kormendy, an architect, served as president of the Hungarian Society for Urban Planning when the museum district project began. He quickly learned that the government had no intention of meaningful consultation with stakeholders, he said.

Nave professionals such as myself had no idea this project had already been decided, he said. Not even the Guggenheim was constructed inside of Central Park. Why should a city park be burdened with such development?

Yet Eszter Reisz, who raised her family in the area, said the parks development was fantastic in comparison with its previously unkempt condition.

For Klara Garay, a 71-year-old biology teacher who has lived near the park for decades, the repurposing of the park epitomizes the general climate in Hungary. She has been protesting against the parks redevelopment since it began.

I feel despair, she said. This country is morally at such a low point.

Although the House of Music aims for community-building and education, the strife over its genesis is a reminder of why many of Hungarys most celebrated musicians such as Bartok, or Gyorgy Ligeti left the country.

The political past of Hungary has been very problematic in certain phases of its history, said the musicologist Felix Meyer, who runs the Paul Sacher Foundation in Switzerland. Many of the countrys talented musicians, he added, chose to live in the West.

Its as simple as that, Meyer said. Hungary was a small country and could be very repressive, and not all of them felt appreciated. These are great minds, very liberal minds, people who needed space and opportunities, so its natural they made big careers outside of Hungary.

The acclaimed Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff, who has been in self-imposed exile for over a decade in protest of Orbans politics, said by phone that The way Orban supports culture is very selective. Schiff added that Orban will support everything that follows him, everybody who joins the bandwagon.

Orbans government, Schiff said, tried very hard to change history and change the facts, but it would be better to work on that, to admit faults and mistakes.

Asked if he would consider returning to Hungary if Mr. Orban is ousted in April, Mr. Schiff said, Yes, certainly.

I would love to come back, he said. This is the place I was born, its my mother tongue, and I deeply love Hungarian culture.

The rest is here:
A Music Museum Opens in the Heart of Hungarys Culture Wars - The New York Times