Leading intellectuals sent an open letter to the Minister of the National Cultural Heritage and the Minister of Education in an attempt to save Artpool
Press release by Artpool Art Research Center 03.11.2005.
Prominent members of Hungary’s educational, cultural and scientific institutions turned to Minister András Bozóki (Ministry of Culture) and Minister Bálint Magyar (Ministry of Education) in an open letter in an attempt to save Artpool Art Research Center, since the operation of the documentation and research centre of underground and Avant-garde culture is still not guaranteed, and the threat that the institution, which is uniquely important for both domestic and international scientific and art research, will be closed down continues to be imminent.
The information about the critical situation of Artpool Art Research Center was made public in connection with the Aid Concept festival, organised in early October.
The research centre, which was established as a private initiative in 1979 and operated illegally until the change in the system, has a unique collection of documents about Hungarian and international art and culture after 1945. This material is invaluable in terms of their artistic significance, while providing researchers and those taking an interest in this era with a wealth of information about the culture which represented the voice of those intellectuals who forming the strongest and most diverse such social layer in all of Central-Eastern Europe and driven by their inner freedom either wilfully or instinctively remained in opposition to the prevailing system and did not wish to become ’integrated’ into it. Artpool is an integral part of Hungary’s cultural and scientific life not only in its capacity as a research centre, an archive and a collection but also as an active participant in culture (organising various events and exhibitions). Artpool’s web-pages provide educational institutions with important academic material included in their compulsory and recommended lists of readings.
Academics, heads and members of university departments of art history, art theory, communication and media science, literary science, sociology and art, as well as directors of contemporary art collections and museums expressed their concern in the above-mentioned open letter about the fact that Artpool, which is among the most original institutions in the Hungarian cultural scene and is indeed one of its kind internationally, reached a financially untenable situation; they drew attention to the loss that the closing down of Artpool Art Research Centre would cause to science, education and contemporary art.
As stated by those who endorsed the open letter, "closing down Artpool Art Research Center would not only negatively affect but also deal a blow to the humanities and social sciences in general, including the areas of art history, literary history, musical science, media sciences, museum science, as well as research projects, publications and education in disciplines such as history and sociology, while also exerting a painful influence upon the cultivation and education of the arts." For this reason, they are asking the minister of culture and the minister of education to do all in their power to prevent the closing down of Artpool and ensure the continuous operation of the institution.
Signees to the letter:
Dr Béla Bacsó, associate professor, director of the Art Theory and Media Research Institute, ELTE University
Dr László Beke, art historian, director of the Research Institute of Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, curatorial member of Artpool
István Dévényi, art historian, head of the Department of Contemporary Art, Hungarian National Gallery
Csilla E. Csorba, art historian, deputy director-general of the Petőfi Literary Museum
Dr Judit Geskó, art historian, head of the Department of Art in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Museum of Fine Arts
Dr Péter György, media researcher, head of the Media Programme, Humanities Faculty, ELTE University
Frigyes Kőnig, head of department, full professor, rector, Hungarian University of Fine Arts
Ernő Marosi, art historian, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, vice-president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Dóra Maurer, Kossuth Prize-holding fine artist, professor at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, president of Artpool’s Supervisory Committee
Katalin Néray, art historian, director of Ludwig – Museum of Contemporary Art
Prof. Dr Péter Niedermüller, cultural anthropologist, leader of the modernity PhD-Cultural Science Doctoral Programme, Humanities faculty, Pécs University, professor at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Europäische Ethnologie
Miklós Peternák, art historian, department head, full professor, head of the Intermedia Institute, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, director of C3 Centre for Culture and Communication
Edit Sasvári, art historian, deputy director of the Budapest History Museum Municipal Gallery - Kiscell Museum
Mihály Szegedy-Maszák, regular member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, department head, full professor, ELTE University, member of Academia Europea
Zsolt Szijártó, PhD, head of the Department of Communication and Media Science, Humanities Faculty, Pécs University
Endre Szkárosi, literary scholar, associate professor, Romance Philology Institute, Humanities Faculty, ELTE University, curatorial member of Artpool
Annamária Szőke, PhD, art historian, senior lecturer, Art History Institute, Humanities Faculty, ELTE University, president of the curatorium of Artpool
László Szörényi, literary historian, director of the Institute of Literary History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, head of the Comparative Literary Science Department, Szeged University
Ernő Tolvaly, painter, full professor, head of the Department of Paining, Institute of Visual Arts, Faculty of Music and Visual Arts, Pécs University
György Várkonyi, at historian, senior fellow at Janus Pannonius Museum
Anna Wessely, art historian, sociologist, head of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, ELTE University
András Wilheim, music historian, senior lecturer, Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music
(English translation: Krisztina Sarkady-Hart)