Faith – Trust – Secrecy: Religion Through the Lenses of the Secret Police
Hit – Bizalom – Titok: Az üldözött vallásosság képei a titkosszolgálati levéltárakban

Faith and trust are two of the central foundations of religious community but secrecy also represents a common feature of religions throughout history. The secret police, as their name suggests, depended on secrecy practices, whether real or simply performed, and as part of their undercover operations they sought to gain the trust of the communities they wished to infiltrate. Researchers of religion, both during Communism and today, also require the trust of the communities that they research and they practice their own forms of secrecy to protect the identity of research participants. In this exhibition, we present the complex interactions of the secret police with religious groups and those seeking to research them. Faith and trust, whether sustained or broken, and secrecy are interwoven in the images, narratives and testimonies on display.

The material for this exhibition came from two sources. In the first instance, it is based on research conducted in the secret police and other state archives between 2016 and 2019 by a team of researchers of the Hidden Galleries project. This work has been expanded on and placed in dialogue with collaborative work with the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives on their recently acquired collection of manuscripts and personal books of the Hungarian sociologist of religion, Zsuzsa Horváth.

Faith – Trust – Secrecy, is now available online. Through 360° interior photos, scanned archival documents, and explanatory texts, visitors can explore the complex interactions of the secret police with religious groups and those seeking to research them. The images, narratives, and testimonies on display reveal the interweaving of faith and trust, whether sustained or broken, and secrecy.

kurátor / curator:
Gabriela NICOLESCU

ko-kurátor / co-curator:
James KAPALÓ

vezető kutatók / lead researchers:
HESZ Ágnes
POVEDÁK Kinga

nemzetközi kutatócsoport / international research team:
Igor CAȘU
Iuliana CINDREA
Dumitru LISNIC
Anca ȘINCAN
Tatiana VAGRAMENKO

OSA levéltári munkatárs / OSA archivist:
TARI Örs

archív hangfelvételek / archival sound materials
Handan EMIR

projektvezető / project principal investigator:
James KAPALÓ

szövegek / texts:
HESZ Ágnes
James KAPALÓ
Gabriela NICOLESCU
POVEDÁK Kinga

lektorálta / proofreading:
DOBÓ Katalin, ZSÁMBOKI Miklós

grafikai és kiállításdesign / graphic and exhibition design:
KOPHELYI Dániel

képfeldolgozás / image editing:
BEJCZY Sándor, KOPHELYI Dániel

koordinátor / coordinator:
SZÉKELY Katalin

kiállítástechnikusok / exhibition technicians:
NEMZETES Ferenc
GERGÁCZ Árpád

sajtó és kommunikáció / pr and communication:
BERTALAN Nóra

Photography © Andrea Bényi / Milán Rácmolnár