Motherhood Project

Please be invited to unveiling ceremony of Motherhood statue 
Time: 11:00 on Friday, 5th of June, 2015
Place: Miskolc, Szigethy Mihály út 8.

Program (45 minutes):

• Welcome
• Opening speech by dr. Ákos Kriza Mayor of Miskolc
• Greeting speech by H.E. Junichi Kosuge Ambassador of Japan 
• “Motherhood” statue by Tibor Wehner art historian
• Short program presented by the students of the school including a 5 minute video about Nándor Wagner and his art showing love for mothers
• Presenting the statue to the school by Ms. Chiyo Wagner, founding President of Academia Humana Foundation, honorary President of Wagner Nándor Memorial Foundation in Japan 
• Unveiling ceremony 
• Thanks and appreciation by Ms. Antónia Orsolya Zsúdel director of the school 

Background. Several outstanding statues had been sculpted by Nándor Wagner in his Budapest atelier at Castle Bazar (Várbazár) between 1951 and 1956. According to documents held in the archive of the Advisory Office for Fine Arts, he was awarded a contract in winter 1955 to carve a limestone sculpture with the title Motherhood or Nursing Mother. The plaster model of the statue, which was to be erected in the garden of the Budapest-Albertfalva crèche, was ready by summer of 1956. The contract was signed with the artist on 14th September 1956 to implement the sculpture. Soon the Hungarian Revolution gave a short freedom to citizens of Hungary. Durning the twelve days of Revolution, Nándor Wagner was elected a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Hungarian Association of Artists. When the Revolution had fallen and the wave of arrests had started Nándor Wagner had to flee from Hungary with his family. After a brief stay in Vienna they left for Sweden. History was to foil the implementation of similar plans, including statue Motherhood. However it was not clear for a good period of time what was the fate of the statue? 

This is the only photo we found.
Motherhood plaster model placed in the background with Attila József the poet.

Saving the statue. To Nándor Wagner’s luck, his semi finished works and finished ones from his atelier had been saved by his museum friends after he left Hungary and had been deposited in a storeroom of the King Saint Stephen Museum of Székesfehérvár which alas to say later suffered several flooding. For a long period it was believed that his saved art pieces went by the board, but in 2009 almost 50 items were found among them the plaster model of Motherhood.

At that time we have decided to save the statue by carving it into stone and presenting it to a healthcare educational institute. Székesfehérvár commemorated Saint Stephen the first Hungarian king in the year 2013. On this occasion chamber exhibition titled "Wagner statue-artifact in Székesfehérvár" at King Saint Stephen Museum has been organized to show a bit of history related to art and activity for the city by Nándor Wagner. The exhibition was a great success. A visitor informed us that she knew the lost statue which had been placed silently, with no publicity at all on the premises of Albertfalva kindergarten, which is now the Down syndrome day-boarding facility, a closed institute. We have inspected that statue, and as its condition has been deteriorated much over 50+ years we made a decision to go ahead with the project in 2014.

Presentation of the statue
Ferenczi Sándor Healthcare Vocational School in Miskolc was selected from the nominated ones to be presented by Nándor Wagner’s work the nursing mother. School has no large artwork at her premises.

Ferenczi Sándor Healthcare Vocational School

It was established in 1957 and since then had been developed continuously. Their curriculum includes all clinics and hospital nursing. Quite a few reforms were implemented in 1975, 1977 and 1990 respectively. The school was participating at several competitions and tenders and won support from PHARE, EU educational health funds and Hungarian government funds as well. They joined Leonardo da Vinci program collaborating and exchanging experimental and mobility knowledge with 6-8 EU countries since 1997. The school was growing and by integration had to operate a second teaching unit. They won the bronze medal of the For Outstanding Quality Public Education movement in 2002. After five year period being in unsatisfactory school conditions the new building was opened in February 2007. The new school building complex was designed by Csaba Bodonyi DLA an internationally renowned architect. Now they are following HEFOP-3.1.2. the Competence Based Education, a Hungarian government organized operative development programme. The school is the largest of its kind in the Eastern Hungarian region and has one thousand students. We do hope they will like the statue Motherhood.

Tapló - Indelicate Art Events Diary 1996-2006

Our foundation has supported a book project of Tibor Wehner art historian. He is a writer, a real penman who has been writing his diary since long. Now he selected his diary entries from the period 1996-2006. This important 10 year period is covering the change of Hungarian fine arts; how is our art reflecting the rocky road to free market economy? Mr. Wehner selected a sarcastic title Tapló to his 720 pages book. Tapló is a modified word of Napló which is Diary. Tapló has several meanings: touchwood, tinder, German tinder. The author giving this title implies to his critical touch of contemporary Hungarian art and art related events, with his frank and straightforward remarks. It is a pity that Tapló is in only Hungarian, because it is a essential source and reference book both for public and researchers. The book will be presented to the press and public in the Petőfi Literature Museum, on the 30th of April.

 

The publisher of the book is Enciklopédia Kiadó.

Unveiling the statue Mother Earth

The ceremony was greeted by H.E. Tetsuo Ito Ambassador of Japan. He emphasized that the statue to be unveiled will be an attraction of the Buda Castle. After the great moment Zsuzsa Vámosi-Nagy played Telemann D-major flute fantasy. Dr. Gábor Tamás Nagy mayor of I. district in his speech pointed to the hidden message of Mother Earth, talked about Gaia and sculptor Nándor Wagner. Mr. Koji Akiyama President of Wagner Nandor Foundation in Japan thanked the place and highly appreciated the excellent carving of stone sculptor István Darányi . He also expressed his special thanks to Reneszánsz Zrt., Aspectus Architect Zrt. and Market Építő Zrt. for supporting and managing the project. The master of the ceremony was Sándor Kiss our President. (Photo: László Gergely)

More facts and photo galery

Reneszánsz Stonemason Ltd. Üröm, Hungary

The curving of of the statue named Mother Earth progressing well. Here you can see as István Darányi stone sculptor and Tibor Wehner art critic and historian are discussing the details.

Nándor Wagner Program - the 10th Anniversary

A commemorative evening for the tenth anniversary of unveiling of the Garden of Philosophy on Gellért Hill was held at Petőfi Literature Museum.
Program: opening speech by H.E. Tetsuo Ito Ambassador of Japan; Tibor Wehner art historian talks about the recent results of Wagner researches; Sándor Kiss recalls the events at Garden of Philosophy. Videos about Nándor Wagner and the film of János Gulyás Corpus Hungaricum will be shown. Closing words was told by Wagner Chiyo. (We had 120+ participants)

 Garden of Philosophy the first 10 years (large ppt file)

Nándor Wagner Evening

Our Foundation has organized an evening program at the Petőfi Literature Museum.
Mr. Sandor Kiss president of the Foundation welcomed the participants and talked about the recent activities of our Foundation. The NHK video feature story of Mrs. Chiyo Wagner was shown. Mr. Tibor Wehner art historian talked about the recently discovered grave statue in Budapest. A documentary film made by Mr. János Gulyás titled  Nándor Wagner's Swedish period about his standing statues there was shown.

Nándor Wagner in his atelier in Lund

Gardens of Philosophy Symposium

Our Foundation organized a crowd attending Symposium about the reception of the Garden of Philosophy both in Budapest and Tokyo in the Petőfi Literature Museum in Budapest. Speakers:
Chiyo Wagner founder, Tibor Wehner art historian, Sándor Kiss president. The video documentary of the group of statues made by János Gulyás was shown.