ABSTRACT
Increasingly over the last decade, different forms of resistance have emerged around the world as nations have embraced some form of far-right nationalism. Since coming into office in 2010 Viktor Orbán and FIDESZ, the governing party in Hungary has aggressively sought to clean the country’s major political, economic, and cultural institutions of left-leaning intellectuals by dominating all segments of society. While diverse in scale, strategies of resistance, and lifespan, the art and activist initiatives of the Szabad Művészek/Free Artists group, the Ludwig Lépcső/The Ludwig Stairs occupation, and the Eleven Emlekmu/Living Memorial protest action have challenged authoritarian legislation. These initiatives demonstrate a shared interest in horizontal processes or communication and organization. However, the horizontality implied in such forms of resistance, I argue, is not leaderless. Instead, they have relied on a few core organizers comprised of artists, curators, and activists who created the framework for the emergence of unscripted forms of solidarity.
