From the Revolution to Black March
FROM REVOLUTION TO BLACK MARCH
(Márton Áron Square)
March 22 2015 –
Ladies and Gentleman!
In 1989, when the system collapsed in all Eastern Europe, here it seemed to be untouchable to the last minute. The impossible happened anyway in December that year. Exasperation went beyond our habituated fear. What had started on the 16th in Timișoara was spread all over the country in a few days. The TV broadcasted a spectacular fall of the system from Bucharest, which was followed by dramatic events and fights. In those days extraordinary things were happening also in Odorheiu Secuiesc. In that December we all believed, or at least we hoped, that something was changing into the better.
The events of those times, included in this exhibition, in the last two and a half decades have been printed deeply into the collective conscience of the Hungarians from Romania. I, myself was on the edge of childhood and adolescence when all these happened, I was at the age of 13, so I could hardly realize what was happening, but I felt, I had the sensation, that extraordinary events are taking place at that time. But now it is very interesting to experiencer how in 25 years the events have turned into history. We evoke here, today a reality of the life of my generation and the elder generations, which for the younger generations might seem only fragments of memory, or a part of the universe of history manuals and documentaries.
That is why I consider, that those people, who imagined and carried out this exhibition organized by the local authorities, the Haáz Rezső Museum, and the Areopolisz Society, deserve a great appreciation and a lot of thanks, as they did not let these events, which had taken place not too long ago, to be forgotten. I am convinced, that this open air exhibition of dr. Csaba Gidó and Zsolt Kápolnási, visually spectacular and essential in its content, will not let anyone pass it by without evoking memories and feelings. The photographs of Attila Balázs, Ferenc Balázs, Attila Csedő sr., Károly Szabó and Jenő Zepeczáner from Odorheiu Secuiesc, respectively Zoltán Ábrahám and György Vajda from Târgu-Mureș offer a visual evoking of the events, making them a living experience even for all those, who were not, who could not be a part of them.
I wish everyone a great experience, thank you for your attention.
Károly Novák, historian