„In this period I tried to work in liminal fields. There had been a few things in Boglár already that I made in order to demonstrate that even though I was not an artist, a critic could produce art, too.

I was and am also oddly attracted to Central Eastern Europe, and I had always been irritated by the fact that while Slovaks and Hungarians have seemed to hate one another for 150 years, whenever we take a closer look at things, we can co-operate in really productive ways. So I began to learn Slovak, because I wanted to do something personally to melt this tension. This is also significant, as I think that 10-15 Hungarians and perhaps even more Slovak artists still rely on this: that they could and can have such great ideas together. This event was also initiated because of this.

I somehow happened to come across an English language periodical with a special issue on Czechoslovakia. It featured a fascinating photo of the unified troops, which had just marched into Czechoslovakia, lining up to play a game called “tug-of-war”, immediately before or after occupying a village.

Thus, I organised a tableau vivant to this effect in Balatonboglár. The whole thing was put together in a very naïve manner, of course: instead of using a rope, Hungarian and Czechoslovakian artists, separated into two groups, played tug-of-war with the issue – this photo – of the aforementioned periodical.

The story is a bit forced, as I suddenly realised that this was not only a political allusion but also, in some way, the magical annihilation of a photograph, while also being a scenario of a picture within a picture. It was similar to composing a tableau vivant for reconstructing an event for a historical painting. I had a great time coming up with this idea and, all in all, it is good that we did this.”
(Interview with László Beke, 1998)