IN THE YEAR ZERO – IN THE YEAR OF CHANCE
"International Hungary" in 1984
The exhibition titled HUNGARY CAN BE YOURS!/ International Hungary opened in the Young Artists’ Club in Budapest sixteen years ago, on 27 January 1984, and was immediately banned because ‘by chance’ the picture outlined by the displayed works did not accord with the country’s image in that year: in 1984, the year of Orwell. Five years later, at the beginning of the change of the political system, which can be regarded as an ‘evolutionary accident’, the reconstructed exhibition was opened with the meeting of those who directly participated in the ban. The exhibition material’s study and renewed presentation in 2000, the year of the millennium, was partly explained by the vast change that had taken place in country’s image and worldview, and partly by the fact that the so-called III/III secret police documents (dossier with the cover name “Painter”) were found in the Historical Archives; the dossier provided the detailed description and ‘interpretation / evaluation’ of the works and opening events of the exhibition in 1984. These documents were displayed and made accessible for study in Artpool P60 with the title International Hungary in 1984.
Drawing by Tamás Szentjóby in the Balatonboglár guest book, 1972
László Algol – who, Péter Halász once told me, was the smartest man in the world, arrived with Halász and his company [to Balatonboglár in 1973].
He selected a secluded corner of the graveyard for his “approximation exercise”, which began that evening and lasted until the following morning.
The exercise was titled A HÁROMSÁG SZEMÉLYISÉGE [THE PERSONALITY OF THE TRINITY].
A year later, when I happened to be listening to a music quiz on the radio, I recognized the voice of the man, who answered all the questions correctly, as being that of Algol. He was the winner that day and to my surprise he was referred to as Gusztáv Hábermann M. Not long after this I ran into Algol in the street, not far from where Péter Halász was living. This encounter was made all the more remarkable because then Algol already had his third name, that of the third personality - something we were looking for during the “approximation exercise” at Boglár. But I only found out about this much later, twenty-seven years after our meeting: his code name as agent III/III was Zoltán Pécsi. I regularly ‘had the chance to meet’ his third, ‘secret’ personality up to the change in the political system.
He is the author of the report about the exhibition HUNGARY CAN BE YOURS! of the secret police folder named "Festő" [Painter]
List of the police officers and state leaders observing and obstructing György Galántai's art activity and the operation of the Artpool Archive - in chronological and alphabetical order
HUNGARY TODAY - Holonic Hungaricums
Hungarofuturism - Objects by György Galántai - Videos by Róbert Puzsér - Freedom of Press
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