Attila Kotányi (; 1924, Hungary – 18 October 2003, Düsseldorf) was a poet, philosopher, writer and architect-urbanist. In his early years in Budapest, Attila Kotányi belonged to the

Budapest Dialogical School The Budapest Dialogical School was a community of thinkers, poets, artists and scientists based in Budapest, Hungary which operated during the middle of the twentieth century. The school was led by Lajos Szabó and Béla Tábor with input from ...

an intellectual circle of philosopher

Lajos Szabó Lajos Szabó (1 July 1902 in Budapest – 21 October 1967 in Düsseldorf) was a Hungarian philosopher and one of the founders of the ''Budapest Dialogical School''. Early life Lajos Szabó was born in Budapest on 1 July 1902. In 1919 he was ...

(with whom he maintained a philosophical conversation for 20 years) and Béla Hamvas. In 1956, after the failed Hungarian revolution, he emigrated with his family to Brussels where he continued studying and eventually graduated in urbanism. In 1960 he became a member of the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

(SI). His contributions to the SI's journal include ''Gangland and Philosophy'' (1960), ''Basic Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism'' (1961) co-authored with Raoul Vaneigem, and ''Theses on the Paris Commune'' (1962) co-authored with

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...

and Raoul Vaneigem. He was excluded from the SI in December 1963. Later he moved to Düsseldorf, Germany, where he taught for 12 years at the

Düsseldorf Art Academy Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

. Beyond poetry and philosophical conversations he also painted and did smaller architectural works. In the 1990s he returned to Budapest where he pursued the last active period of his life, gathering a steady circle of young intellectuals in his Saturday afternoon conversations where he was elaborating on his Sabbath-theory, the radical suspension of activity. He died in Düsseldorf due to complications of a stroke.

References

External links

* Attila Kotányi Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kotanyi, Attila 1924 births 2003 deaths Situationists Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf Hungarian emigrants to Belgium