Contract unsigned, Pécs revitalization for 2010 at standstill

Preparations for Pécs to be the Cultural Capital of Europe (EKF) in 2010 have been put on hold indefinitely, as the project has no artistic director nor any strong vision. This is because the government has not signed a modified version of the contract that was made with the city, writes ingatlanmagazin.com, based on a report in regional daily Új Dunántúli Napló.

pecs2010.hu

(Top) Members of the Advisory Board of the Pécs Application for Culture Capital hold their first meeting in Budapest on June 3, 2005. (Bottom) A six-year-old child's drawing of how they see Pécs as the culture capital of Europe.

Pécs mayor Péter Tasnádi, in an interview with the paper, was unable to say why the government has not signed the contract. The agreement they were to sign outlined the role of the artistic director in the project and also postponed the deadline for the formulation of a cultural conception.

The paper wrote that the agreements has not been signed because Pécs failed to meet even the first modified deadline, which the city itself initiated. It seems the government is reluctant to condone a project where city leaders have no overarching vision for how to prepare Pécs for 2010, and have failed to produce a viable plan.

The Cultural Capital of Europe revitalization project is worth a total of Ft 34 billion (€132 million), 85% of which will be supported by the EU.

Tasnádi said that considering the importance of the program, it was not likely that the government will cancel the original contract with the city. Because they wanted to keep this contract, the Ministry of Education and Culture appointed Ferenc Sághy as project coordinator on Nov. 9.

Sághy is the latest of many leaders who have taken charge in the three years since Pécs was awarded the title of Cultural Capital of Europe for 2010. It seems high turnover has gone hand-in-hand with delay.

For instance, postponements were in the works as early as Nov. 13, 2006 when internal tension developed in the city and management center. At the time, program managers requested additional millions of forients to develop the project guidelines, but the political opposition considered this too high. Following debates between politicians and managers, József Takács, main cultural consultant of the EKF, resigned.

Tibor Kiss, leader of the local green company, was then appointed as general director, but he did not last longer than a few months. Meanwhile, architect Gábor Freivogel resigned as well. Artistic director Márton Méhes was expected to save the project, but after six months he had resigned reportedly, because he had problems with the "bureaucratic and autocratic behavior" of project leader András Mészáros. Mészáros was later appointed to be the new general director and paid Ft 1.5 million a month for the job.

By the spring of 2007, a task force for the project was put together. At this time, the changes, renovations, and updates for the city were to be coordinated by a general director with the help of 40 city leaders including architectural, artistic, development, legal and financial directors. Their task was to distribute the money based on the tenders for programs they wanted to see completed.

Most recently, under the leadership of government appointed leader Sághy, a group of experts have created material for the artistic and cultural framework for the project using material created by the former artistic director, Méhes; this was supposed to be completed by Dec. 3, 2007.

According to the paper, for now the work of the future artistic director will be performed by a four-member body in the future, which will include novelist Giorgio Pressburger, local sculptor Zoltán Pál, Pannon Philharmonics Director Zsolt Horváth and film and theater director János Szikora.

In addition to inconsistent leadership, the city is burdened by limited transportation. Pécs is difficult to reach by car because the motorway ends in Dunaújváros. The government first promised a motorway to Pécs by 2009, then by 2010. According to the paper, though the city is grappling with limited vision and high turnover, the good news is the road is likely be completed in time.

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