Krisztina Reményi, the new director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Brussels, plans to raise the institute's profile and bring its programmes onto the street.


The centre is celebrating its fifth birthday with an exhibition entitled Lajos Vajda and Hungarian Surrealism, which can be seen until January 17 in Antwerp's Museum of Fine Arts, and it has created a "fantastic" website in two languages, thanks to former director György Petőcz, said Reményi, who was earlier the centre's programme director. The centre's building, which includes a piece of the city wall from the 12th century, does much for Hungary's image in Belgium, said Reményi. But the centre has to show itself in a way that makes visitors stay or come back, she added.

The centre will promote the Hungarian city of Pécs's European Capital of Culture Programme in 2010, and in 2011 it will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Liszt and participate in the first half year of Hungary's shared European Union presidency with Spain and Belgium. The centre will also host a joint exhibition by the Royal Library in Brussels and the National Széchényi Library in Budapest.

Reményi also considers it an important task to continue to provide programmes for Hungarian families living and working in Brussels. It offers a theatre group for people under 30 and a children's programme in Hungarian on Saturdays.

Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)