8 July 1972 - In the course of the program “DIRECT WEEK” performances, actions and events are held by the participants of the “Avant-garde Festival” banned in Budapest. Participants: Béla Adamis, László Beke, Gábor Bódy, Miklós Erdély, Gyula Gulyás, Péter Halász, Ágnes Háy, Tamás Hencze, Péter Lajtai, Péter Legéndy, László Méhes, Gyula Pauer, Tamás Szentjóby
Gyula GULYÁS: Body marks
„I did a body art type performance to see how it works. I was curious to find out what the tolerance threshold of the human body is and what pain means. Gyuri had a lot of pegs in the chapel, so I had the idea that I would sit down like a fakir and would have the pegs clipped all over my body; the others would help me in carrying this out. And then I sat down and they put the pegs all over me. After some time your skin cannot stretch any more so there is no more room for pegs. I sat like that, with the pegs resembling pikes on my body, for an entire day. To be honest, it was quite strange: I got into a kind of meditative state. I actually was myself, together with the pegs, which is completely ridiculous; thinking back to it, the whole thing was so childish and infantile. But when I was actually in it, the world was an interesting place as I observed it looking outside from within. It was also rather peculiar to experience how disciplined you can be in certain situations. Maybe that was the point of this whole thing. A kind visitor made an 8-mm film of this, so it is captured for posterity. When the chapel closed a good one and a half hours later I removed the pegs and my body was covered in little red squares: it looked like I had stamps all over me. My circulation did not work in the pegged areas so after some time purple spots appeared on my body. So I returned to my sculptural art: to minimal art.”
(Interview with Gyula Gyulyás, 1998)
6-9 July 1972 - “DIRECT WEEK” exhibition, events (organized by Gyula Pauer and Tamás Szentjóby). Participants: László Beke, Miklós Erdély, Gyula Gulyás, Miklós Haraszti, László Haris, Ágnes Háy, Tamás Hencze, Péter Lajtai, Péter Legéndy, József V. Molnár , Gyula Pauer, Margit Rajczi, Tamás Szentjóby, Endre Tót. [snapshots: 1, 2]
