‘Carved freedom – 15 March 1989’ is the title of the exhibition opened in the Saloon of the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice (KIM for short) this Tuesday; presenting the photos of Ernő Horváth taken 25 years ago.

As Tibor Navracsics, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration and Justice said this Tuesday; last year the KIM Saloon presented an anniversary selection of recordings made by Ernő Horváth at the demonstration held on 23 October 1988 and now his pictures recording the events which took place in Budapest on March 15, 1989 are being shown on the corridor walls of the fourth floor in the Ministry.

DownloadPhoto: Zsolt Burger

As he added, after long decades 1989 was the first year when state power permitted the presence of democratic bodies (then the word ‘alternative’ was used) on 15 March. He remembered that “many of us believed that changes are indeed possible, when popular Hungarian actor György Cserhalmi read out loud the 12 points claiming an independent Hungary”.

Tibor Navracsics said that according to their plans, the anniversary exhibition series from works of Ernő Horváth will continue after the elections as a part of programmes commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Hungarian-Austrian Border Opening.

DownloadPhoto: Zsolt Burger

Ernő Horváth, as a freelance photojournalist had appeared at almost all major political events wherever possible and documented the transition process at his own expense without the possibility of getting published. He was present in Budapest when Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs were reburied; during the transition demonstrations in Berlin when the Wall was demolished; at the Romanian revolution; was around at the war in Yugoslavia and in Moscow during the coup.

As he said regarding the dangers of contemporary photography during demonstrations, “for many years a serious fight went on with the police; on the 23rd of October 1988, for example, they tore out a roll of film from my machine so that it broke into three pieces.”
Ernő Horváth said that on 15 March 1989 he was working all day and documented every major event throughout. On the walls of the KIM Saloon 20 photos are shown out of the nearly 200 shots what he took.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)