(Ex)Culture in Hungary: Archive and Sliding of Meanings

Abstract

In this paper, Budapest’s Szoborpark is analyzed as an archive from a discursive perspective considering concepts like ideology, society, history, discursive formations, subject, and meaning. For this reason, besides theoretical presuppositions, essential historical information is given in order to make the analytical path clear. The objective is to show how symbolic meanings may change in accordance with historical, political, and ideological events in society, as well as to demonstrate how elements that compose urban and public spaces may function as tools in controlling and imposing specific political and ideological interests. The aim is not to defend any socio-political side here but to demonstrate how concrete materialities can function symbolically and how their meanings may change according to ideological, institutional, and State factors.