Paper short abstract:

This paper asks why the authoritarian populist regime of Orbán’s Hungary institutionalize folk culture in the infrastructures of high culture. Besides stressing the long history of mis/using folk culture in state-building, I argue that folk art NGO’s deep social penetration is key to this shift.

Paper long abstract:

How do emerging authoritarian capitalist regimes reorder folk heritage in the peripheries of Europe? To answer this question, I mobilize my one-and-a-half-year-long ethnographic fieldwork at the Hungarian Academy of Arts (HAA) – the lavishly funded cultural flagship institution of Orbán’s Hungary. During my participant observation at the HAA I paid a special attention on the role of folk culture, and I attended several meetings of its folk artists. In the paper I argue that the HAA encapsulates a particular tendency in the Orbán-regimes’ mis/use of heritage: it elevates folk culture to the “level” of high culture.

Folk culture has been a cornerstone of East-Central European state and nation-building since the 19th century, and most regimes established segmented institutions of ‘authentic’ folk culture. The HAA’s case indicates a rupture in this model. Folk art has its dedicated section within the Academy next to the traditional high art disciplines. Dozens of folk artists have been elected to be members of the HAA, giving them unprecedented recognition.

Besides mobilizing the association between folk culture and national essence, the paper argues that the social penetration of folk-art NGOs is crucial to their "upward mobility." Folk culture is much more popular than other forms of high culture produced in the HAA's ivory tower, and it is not limited to the urban, upper-class communities. I argue that via the high number of folk-art NGOs, the HAA and the Orbán-regime can penetrate society – and stabilize its rule – at a deeper level than via high art.