Performing Democracy Under Illiberalism: critical pedagogy lecture & workshop on the radical aesthetics of the ‘Learning Republic’ staged by Hungarian theatre students in 2020
On 1 September 2020, the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest (SZFE) was incorporated into the higher education privatization programme of the illiberal Orbán regime. During the summer, students initiated a public protest for academic freedom and restoring democratic dialogue, which culminated in a 71-day blockade of the university building.
The protest, branded “freeSZFE,” comprised a series of artistic interventions and happenings that represent some of the most radical and courageous moments in post-1989 Hungarian theatre and performance art. These actions functioned not only as political demands but also as experiments in democratic forms of collective decision-making.
After a short introduction to the theatrical concepts underlying these actions, we will experiment with their techniques of resistance and, inspired by Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, collectively explore how theatre, art, and democracy intersect and shape one another in practice.
| Friday 17/04/2026 |
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| 08:30 – 10:30 |
| WS: Performing Democracy Under Illiberalism The Chillout Room |
Special thanks to Hanna Milovits and Mihály Csernai, Petra Al-Farman, Luca Jeney, Balázs Tóth (Hungarian Helsinki Committee).