Hello!
My name is Daniel Tucker – I am an artist living in Chicago and am very interested in finding more information about what kind of critical art practices are currently going on in Budapest. I received your contact information from your website and it encouraged me to initiate a dialogue with you about a project I am hoping to propose in Budapest next year.
For the last several years (mostly in Chicago) I have been engaged in collaborative and group initiated activist-art practice that has led me to operate in a variety of organizational formations. You can see more information at my personal website http://www.artic.edu/~dtucke
I have recently begun contacting groups throughout the country to participate in a survey that I have created about the group process and organizational structure of art collectives and activist groups. This is an ongoing project that is currently developing into a web-based international database that will be called Groups and Spaces. http://www.groupsandspaces.net I can send you a copy of the questions I am currently using for this project, if you like.
Now what has led me to Budapest is a general interest and curiosity in the region (the history and culture), the many good things that I have heard about the city and the artists working there, and a research fellowship that I am currently in the process of applying for which would take me to Budapest for a year – beginning next summer. I am interested in researching and building an archive of documents about the structure of collaborative cultural groups that are outside of the “mainstream”. I intend to do this by slowly establishing contact with as many artists and activists working in and around Budapest, talking (or emailing for now) with them about the current practices they are aware of in the City and trying to constantly create and expand my Budapest network. I think the more that I can hear about what people perceive is going on in Budapest, the better I can prepare myself to develop a system for gathering and collecting stories, histories and information about group work in Budapest.
I hope that we can email more about contacts you might have, questions you have about me/my project, or ideas that what I have said might have inspired for you. Currently I am in the research and development phase of my project and the accompanying proposal for a Fulbright Fellowship. If you want to see a copy of my current survey/questions for groups working primarily in the US it is below this email. I am searching for contacts with interesting groups and cultural spaces (like yours!) in Budapest.
I hope we can continue to talk about this project, and you can tell me what kinds of things you are currently working on, with the artpool group or independently. I think that some of the history documented on your website would be particularly interesting to hear more about – such as banned art exhibitions, mail art networks, etc.
I look forward to hearing from you
Best-
daniel tucker
