Népszabadság [People’s Freedom], 26 October 1975
[...] It is even bleaker as we go towards Keszthely and Siófok, down on the shore at Somogy. It was here that well ahead of the season an inspiring exhibition series mainly featuring young artists was organised; it was here that a promising exhibition venue was set up in the weather-beaten chapel in Balatonboglár; and it was the place of the greatest fiasco, the greatest blunder this artistically rather eventless summer at Lake Balaton.
At the start it was all so promising. The village and Somogy County were supportive of having a lively venue for exhibitions on the top of the hill: it devoted funds and received funds to renovate the deserted chapel, which seemed like an excellent venue for exhibitions. Instead of managing it as a private initiative, they asked the association of fine artists to draw up a programme and the exhibition series was launched at the beginning of the season. Then, in the middle of the season, on a day in July, an exhibition – one which had been open for days, its artworks having been juried and permission granted by the Fine and Applied Arts Lectorate – was unexpectedly closed down. And why? According to the statement made by the county council’s official placed in charge of exhibitions, it was closed because they believed the number of people from the art institute who made the decision was not sufficient, and they “received comments” about the exhibition being objectionable. The editorial communique of the periodical titled Művészet [Art] stated that the exhibition was given the green light by the Fine and Applied Arts Lectorate, while “shifting responsibility to the county council”. The situation is not entirely clear since there was a makeshift jury quickly set up by the county council after the exhibition opening from people invited over from the nearby artists’ colony; there was also a unanimous jury decision, which stated that the exhibition should remain open; and there was ample surprise when, despite all the aforesaid, the exhibition was closed down most abruptly and without justification. Finally, there was outrage felt by the artists, voluntary withdrawals by invited exhibiting artists. Thus, the Balatonboglár project was cut short as a result of a lack of understanding as well as tactlessness and mistrust.
The eye-catching, conspicuously blue exhibition chapel in Balatonboglár has been closed not only since the off-season but already from the middle of summer. By now the sculptures of the sculpture park around the chapel are gone, the pedestals are empty, and this summer season is definitively over. The most competent comrade, István Honfi, the secretary of the county’s party committee, wrote the following about this in his article in this month’s Művészet: “The county authorities must act more carefully in regard to managing and overseeing the programme and the organisation of the chapel exhibitions than they did in the case of the exhibition opened on 29 July this year.”
Exhibitions, biennials and prominent fine art events are organised in the holiday season everywhere from the French Riviera to Venice or from the resorts of the North Sea to Rijeka. More than in other seasons. As we wanted to win over new layers of the audience (and there are many we should win over yet), we should especially exploit this opportunity and by no means allow that the whole year become an off-season at Lake Balaton and that projects of nationwide importance be derailed by local and momentary interests or imagined interests as well as by a handful of artists working in the county or by cultural administrators working for the county council with questionable efficiency.
[...] This October visitors to Lake Balaton could see dull and uninspiring exhibitions in the local museums and a closed-down, blue chapel in Balatonboglár [...].