The Collections of Artpool

SOUND / VIDEO / SLIDE / CD-ROM / ARTIST´S PERIODICALS /
ARTIST´S BOOKWORKS / OBJECTS / POSTERS / MAIL ART / POSTCARDS /
ENVELOPES / ARTISTAMP / ARTIST´S MONEY

Artpool´s collections, which consist of international material, correspond, in fact, to the special topics for research at Artpool Art Research Center. [video]

The SOUND ARCHIVE´s (about 1200 casettes, 200 records, 300 CDs) oldest item is from 1972. The most substantial part of the archive is made up of the sound recordings by György Galántai while the rest: documents, casettes, and sound works such as sound performance, poetry, sound poetry, new music, new wave, punk-rock music recorded on casettes, records, and CDs, have been acquired in exchange for Artpool´s publications. In 2007 Artpool received from Klaus Groh a donation of 400 audio-cassettes from his collection of experimental sound documents from the 70s and 80s.
Individual documents or works of the sound archive are regularly shown in various radio programs. <>

In 2008 the digital archiving of the sound collection has been started. The list of the already archived material is available online

The VIDEO ARCHIVE´s (about 700 VHS and 450 Hi8 cassettes, 1600 hours) oldest items are cultural documents that have been recorded from TV since 1984. The archive has been enlarged by Artpool´s own recordings, donations (ex. 150 Hi8 documentary videorecordings by Gabor Tóth), exchanged material, and the Artpool´s programs since 1992 including video anthologies and works, performance videos, Fluxus, actionism, scenes from alternative theatre, independent films, and reports on festivals, etc. Most of the tapes were digitised in 2004-2005 and are available on DVD for research <>

List of the already archived videos

The SLIDE ARCHIVE (about 3000 items) called "ARTPOOL´S SLIDE-BANK" was originally designed to present various projects through the projection of slides. Some of the projects were: Chapel Exhibitions 1970-73, The Oeuvre of Miklós Erdély, Five Letters by Ray Johnson, Correspondence Art, Progressive Art in Hungary 1973/74, Cloud Museum, Stamp Images On Computer, etc. The rest of the archive consists of various artists´ slides of artworks and slide works. The collection is enlarged regularly during the programs. <>

The CD-ROM COLLECTION consists of artists´ CD-ROMs exclusively. The first items of the collection were acquired to be shown at the Budapest Autumn Festival in 1996. <>

The COLLECTION OF ARTISTS´ MAGAZINES is part of the collection of periodicals yet constitutes an independent part of it since it consists of periodicals produced as art works in limited edition: mail art, poetry, philosophy, Fluxus, neoist, and other underground ´zines. E.x.: Commonpress 51, Árnyékkötők 11-12., Brain Cell, UNI/vers(;) <>

The COLLECTION OF PERIODICALS is a collection of series publications, magazines, periodicals documenting the events taking place at the frontiers of art and effecting this sphere, as well as, some other periodicals focusing on the progressive past. [Artpool Letter No.1-11] <>

The COLLECTION OF ARTISTS´ BOOKWORKS (about 1000 items) can be divided into literary, visual, and conceptual bookworks on the basis of the artists´ intention. Works however hardly ever belong to just one category, mostly they represent a combination of these intentions. They vary a lot technically [Barbara Rosenthal, Tomasz Konart]: some of them making use of traditional materials, some of them utilizing electronic facilities, or poetry, or the form of installation. [Networker Bridge] [on line presentations] <>

The COLLECTION OF OBJECTS (about 200-300 items) is a meeting of different genres and themes. It absorbs objects from other collections, such as wooden postcards, bookwork objects, metal stamp, audio casette without a tape, artists´ money, but most of all, all those objects that cannot be put in any other collection.

The topics are: T-shirts, caps, hats, shoes, socks, and badges, Fluxus objects, tinned food, boxes, bottles, matches, cards, labels, stickers, tickets, all kinds of souvenirs, ephemer objects, etc. <>

The POSTER COLLECTION (about 1000 items) started with posters of Hungarian exhibitions and various art events since the early seventies. Later it was enlarged by mail art posters and placards of some other international artistic activities. <>

The MAIL ART COLLECTION consists of art works that have been sent to Artpool by post or via fax. The quality of a mail art work or an artist is indicated by the work´s intermediality: the fact that the work cannot be classified as an item of one particular collection. Mail art includes letters and envelopes, small objects, photos, concepts, graphics, texts, art magazines and books, as well as, artists´ records and tapes. Today there might be no such domain that has not been overtaken by this fluxus that we call mail art.
[Mail Art online] ["Add to" Art] [on line publications] <>

The POSTCARD ARCHIVE (about 4000 items) is as old as Artpool: the rubberstamped inscription "ARTPOOL´S POSTCARD BOX" has been regularly used to mark the items sent by Artpool since 1979. The chief part of the collection consists of single pieces or items made in limitied copies, that is, postcard works. Postcards are the cheapest postal items, that´s why a great number of them can be found at mail art exhibitions. It is not easy to classify them: there are series ["Add to" Budapest postcards] [Art-Umbrella], of course, yet each is a unique piece. The Artistamp Collection includes a special collection of postcards with artists´ stamps. [on line shows] <>

The COLLECTION OF ENVELOPES is based on envelopes to which the sender attached some artistic information and thus converted them into mail art works. Envelopes whose artistic quality is inseparable from their content are also part of the mail art collection. <>

The COLLECTION OF ARTISTS´ STAMPS (about 20.000 items) had started with a stamp made by György Galántai to mark the invitation card of his own exhibition in May 1976, which was followed by a great number of other artists´ stamps sent to the exhibition in 1979 (APS no. 4). Thus Artpool acquired the exhibiton catalogs of the artists´ stamps made by J. W. Felter in Canada in 1974 and U. Carrión in Amsterdam in 1979, and G.A.Cavellini´s entire stamp production in 1980. This was followed by Artpool´s behest at producing self-memorial stamps by the title "World Art Post".

The material of the exhibition of 1982 is published in the World Art Post Catalog on stamp sheets and in the "Stamp Film" by individual images. In 1987, the well-known Canadian artist-philatelist Mike Bidner was kept by his illness from being present at the opening of the exhibition "Stamp Images". He devised his collection to Artpool, which arrived at Budapest in 1990. Based on these two collections, the "ARTISTAMP MUSEUM OF ARTPOOL" was founded in 1992, which is organising exhibitions and is enlarged from time to time.
[Stamp+Rubber Stamp] <>

The COLLECTION OF ARTIST´S MONEY, whose first items had been the 1 rena pengar of "Lundada Bank" and the anti-dollars of "The Anti-Bank of Canadada", includes a wide range of money graphics and objects: cheques, invoices, lighters, and money toilet paper. The collection consists of 2-300 items and enlarges itself through the mail art network, as well as, the humour of everyday business and politics. The closer we get to the "disappearance" of money, the more expressive we regard money. The latest part of the collection is called "Fluxus Buck", that is artists´ money circulating in the "United Eternal Network" produced and modified in various forms. "ARTPOOL FLUXUS BANK" has also issued its own 1 and 100 bucks in 7000 copies. <>

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