Tibor Philipp Passed Away 5 Years Ago
Tibor Philipp passed away five years ago, on January 18, 2020. Philipp was not only an important figure and critic of the Hungarian transition process, but also its chronicler. Before his death, he donated his papers to the Blinken OSA Archivum; the collection has since provided researchers with essential primary sources on the history of the democratic opposition and the regime change. Today, we commemorate him through his photos, now accessible online.
In the early 1980s, Tibor Philipp joined the Inconnu Group, an artists collective relocating from Szolnok to the capital at the time, which played a unique role in the democratic opposition and thus in the Hungarian transition process. Donated to the Archivum, the Tibor Philipp Collection thus includes the artworks of the Inconnu Group, as well as Philipp’s rich collection of samizdat publications, his collection of leaflets and ephemera detailing the events of the regime change, his correspondence, documents concerning his legal affairs.
However, he has proven to be a meticulous chronicler not only as a collector, but also as a photographer: some of his photos depict the creative work of the Inconnu Group, or the defining events of the regime change; while others immortalize sausages arranged (artistically?) on a tree trunk, or the young Viktor Orbán, half-naked under an umbrella, discussing who knows what with György Krassó.
After his death, we commemorated Tibor Philipp with an obituary written by Kristóf Nagy. Now present a selection from Philipp’s photo collection.
Perhaps his most well-known photographs capture György Krassó renaming Münnich Ferenc Street back to Nádor Street in 1989, as an action of the Hungarian October Party:
Philipp consciously documented public protests and commemorations during the late 1980s, events that today are widely recognized as historic. As a result, his collection includes invitation letters, proclamations, transcripts of speeches, etc., which at the time circulated hand-to-hand.
This same attempt is apparent in his photographs documenting the banners and protest signs at demonstrations, such as the ones the Danube Circle organized against the Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros Dams (click to enlarge image):
Browsing the collection, one cannot but notice that Philipp’s attention extended to background events as well. He captured the pub scene below at a so-far unidentified venue, where a faction of the regime-changing intelligentsia gathered several times under an iconic fresco, with further images portraying, among others, Zsolt Csalog, György Gadó, Gábor Iványi, Lajos Jakab, János Kenedi, Ferenc Kőszeg, Gabriella Lengyel, Imre Mécs, Jenő Nagy, Ottilia Solt, and István Szent-Iványi:
Even deeper in the background co-chroniclers appear: on the left, one of the cameramans of the Black Box Foundation, on the right, photographer Éva Kapitány, both captured working at a Jurta Theater gathering. The video footage of the Black Box Foundation, as well as the photo archive of Éva Kapitány, are extremely valuable sources on the history of the regime change, which can be researched in the Blinken OSA Archivum:
The online catalog currently provides open access to digitized photos from Philipp's film negatives (from page 3 of the Finding Aids, or using the Show All option). Photo prints can be requested for view: book a free appointment to the Research Room here! Images from film negatives were scanned by Lenke Szilágyi, Assistant Archivist, and described by Anna Innerhofer, Erasmus Student. The series consists of Philipp's photo collection, which may include photographs by others.
