“Aphrodisias” International Youth Sport, Culture and Art Festival - 2005, Turkey
The following is a short presentation by:
Hajós Alfréd Society
Moderated by:
Ms. Sarolta Várnai
(HAS Founding Member)
In partnership with: Hungarian Olympic Academy
All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2005 Hajós Alfréd Society
Olympics and the Arts
a Hungarian Perspective
HAJÓS ALFRÉD SOCIETY •
PUBLIC BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
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1878 born in Budapest into a poor family of 5 children, Father drowned in Danube when Alfréd was 13 years old. 1896 Athens won 2 gold medals in swimming. He was 18 years old, a 1st year university student, with no proper pool to train in Budapest, only Turkish Baths. 1924 Paris (won architecture competition) After graduation became a footballer and sports journalist, then focused on professional career, designing many sport facilities, private and public buildings. 1930 Margaret Island Pool is perhaps his most noted building, situated in Budapest’s heart, home of the European Swimming Championships in 2006. 1955 died in Budapest surviving the terror of World War II, he became an agricultural architect during communism.
HAJÓS ALFRÉD
(1878-1955)
Michael (Hajós) Hargrave (UK) Alfréd’s Grandson, HAS Honoura ry Pre sident at one of the schools in Hungary named after his Grandfather
Alfréd trained for the Olympics in the small, warm water pool of the Turkish Rudas Bath. The water of the sea during the race was 11 centigrade cold...
HAJÓS ALFRÉD SWIMMING POOL - BUDAPEST
Alfréd Hajós designed and supervised the 1930 building of the pools that were always instrumental in bringing about the glorious history of Hungarian swimmers and waterpolo players that continues to fill marble plates to this day.
Poster announcing the opening of the National Pool. Notice the names in top right corner !
Manno Miltiades - designer
Kellner Gyula - printer
Both were all-round sportsmen in their youth, and, like Hajós, cultivated a passionate attachment to sports in their prodessional life. Kellner (1871-1940) was a member of the 1896 Olympic Team of Hungary, winning 3rd place at the first modernday marathon running. He also competed in wrestling, gymnastics and cycling. He owned the printinghouse that pressed this poster. Miltiades (1880-1935) was a champion cycler, soccer player, rower and ice skater. He became an artist educated in Munich and won silver medal at the Art Competitions of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, with a statue of a wrestler.
Manno Miltiades (HUN) : Wrestling 1932 Los Angeles, Silver
Baron Pierre de Coubertin (bottom left) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which had a Hungarian member (Ferenc Kemény - bottom right) included preovisions for Art Competitions in their original Olympic Charter, in
Five categories: • Architecture
• Literature • Music • Painting
• Sculpture
Until 1948, the Games featured Art Competitions, just like in ancient Greece, where
„KALOKAGATHIA”, the noble spirit in the noble body was an important idea among contemporary values. Today, again and unfortunately, the idea to include art competitions next to sports events at the Olympics seems to be old fashioned and obsolete. However, many artists and thinkers continue to recognise this important aspect of our lives - body and spirit.
Alfréd Hajós and Dezső Lauber were the first Hungarians to enter an art competition in 1924, Paris, winning the top prize in Architecture. They were followed by many others, notably Ferenc Mező, an Olympic historian (Gold in Literature 1928, Amsterdam), the aforementioned Manno Miltiadesz (Silver in Sculpture, 1932 Los Angeles), Lajos Petri (Diploma in Sculpture, 1936 Berlin) and sport theoretician, writer Éva Földes with her work titled „Fountain of Youth” (Bronze in Literature, 1948, London).
As seen on the full list of Olympic art competitors from Hungary, Alfréd Hajós entered 3 times!
Despite the existance of photography, cinematography - both nearly of the same age as modern Olympism - and their younger sibling, television, artists continue to be inspired by the tensions, the struggle the harmony and the social aspects of what sports invoke in us. The following are some examples of works from the last „Silver Spear” competition, held regularely in Hungary, a small country, that has always remained to be a strong associate of the Olympic movement.
Erzsébet Vojnich : Gymnasium
Tamás Opánszky : Hockey Players 7
Boldizsár Szmrecsányi : Bower
Miklós Szabó : Surface Tension
Olympics and the Arts
a Hungarian Perspective
T H A N K Y O U for your attention. This has been a presentation by
HAJÓS ALFRÉD SOCIETY A PUBLIC BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
For more information on this and other related subjects please visit our web site at: www.hajosalfred.hu
All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2005 Hajós Alfréd Society