In a Facebook post on Friday, Krasznahorkai said he could not accept the title as long as the "cursed state" of Hungary’s artistic life remained unchanged.

He wrote that everyone was aware Hungary's artistic community was divided by a "historical lack of understanding and mutual hostility".

"How could these great artists end up so far apart from each other? In separate camps?" he asked, listing members of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and the Szechenyi Academy of Literature and Arts established by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), which he said included many of the country's finest talents.

"Shouldn't they all be together on a Hungarian Olympus, sipping nectar? Is there nothing that unites them?" Krasznahorkai wrote. "The answer we all know. What unites them is the rank that only the best could give to Hungarian culture. And to themselves."

"When I look at the list of Nation's Artists, decided by the Hungarian Academy of Arts, and I see that not just one but many of the recipients come from the other side, then I cannot help but wonder: is there not something deeply obscured, deeply humiliating that overrides this sick, rotten, animalistic, filthily provincial separation? This cursed state," he wrote.

Krasznahorkai concluded: "Until we rise above our weaknesses and this cursed state changes, I am unable to accept this title, which would be an honour for all of us. I am so sad that I have to say this!"

Photo: Krasznahorkai's FB page

 Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881.

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