archivuminternetwork
30 years of artpool.hu
GUIDED TOURS, ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
2026. november 12., 17:00
➤ Guided tour by Flóra Barkóczi, art historian
This guided tour focuses on the utopian nature of the early period of Internet culture, as exemplified by Artpool, and on the art-historical context of the Internet’s use in the visual arts.
Flóra Barkóczi, art historian, who was a staff member at the Artpool Art Research Center from 2018 to 2022, has been a researcher in the Research Department of the Central European Research Institute for Art History since 2022, and is also a lecturer in the Intermedia Department at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Her research focuses on the role of technological mediums in Hungarian visual arts since the 1960s, with a particular emphasis on the internet culture of the 1990s.
➤ Venue: Artpool Art Research Center
(1135 Budapest, Szabolcs utca 33–35., D, 1st floor)
◼︎ Admission to the guided tour is free
➤ essay on the exhibition’s closer and broader contexts:
László Tölgyes: Only what is taken care of will remain / artpool.hu: Thirty Years from the Garden to the Greenhouse
➤ Opening hours: the visual and sound Installation “Archivuminternetwork – 30 Years of artpool.hu is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through December 18, 2026, by appointment only (artpool@szepmuveszeti.hu)
PREVIOUS GUIDED TOURS and ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS
October 7, 2026, 5:00 p.m.
“Can We Still Be Gardeners?”
Roundtable Discussion
Participants: László András Tölgyes, futurist, journalist, and the first webmaster of artpool.hu,
as well as György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay
Moderator: György Cséka
The roundtable discussion—in the context of the “archivuminternetwork” media-historical installation—was not merely an attempt at historical reconstruction—that is, to present the launch of the Artpool website through personal memories and the reflections of its founders and first webmaster—but also to explore the lessons of the past 30+ years of the internet and to formulate prognoses, ideas, questions regarding the future.
In other words, if we view the creatively conceived internet—the Artpool website—as a garden of correspondence art, can we still—or will we be able to—be gardeners in the future?
László Tölgyes’s essay on the exhibition’s closer and broader contexts:
Only what is taken care of will remain / artpool.hu: Thirty Years from the Garden to the Greenhouse
September 23, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.
Guided tour by János Sugár artist and professor
Memories and facts about the early days of Internet use in Hungary, the rise of digital culture, the launch of the Artpool website, the publication of the HYPER TEXT / MULTI MÉDIA Artpool booklet ...
June 25, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.
Guided tour by Júlia Klaniczay and György Cséka
Network projects of the 1980s, “Telefonkoncert” and “Artpool Radio”; “behind-the-scenes secrets” about the launch of the Artpool website from the founders of Artpool
artpool.hu can be understood as a virtual research space that draws on networked thinking predating the advent of the internet and experiments with archive-building—a web space where art and information flow in an inseparable intertwining, becoming open to reinterpretation.
Organized to mark the 30th anniversary of the Artpool Art Research Center’s online presence, “archivuminternetwork” is an audio-visual installation presenting archival documents and original works, which also contextualizes artpool.hu as a continuation of international telecommunications projects from the 1980s (such as Artpool Radió, the Budapest–Vienna–Berlin telephone concert, the Danube Connection, and Horizontal Radio).
Of particular interest: previously unseen drawings and designs created for early HTML-structured websites, the initial website running on a computer of the time, a video recording of a contemporary web tour, and a new video interview, which also offer insight into the conceptual thinking behind website design by György Galántai, the designer of artpool.hu.
Az “archivuminternetwork” azáltal, hogy bemutatja az Artpool webes gyakorlatát, a jelenről való tágabb gondolkodásra is ösztönöz: milyen új gondolkodásformákat alakíthatnak ki a művészek, archivisták és kurátorok az archívumépitésre az egyre inkább felgyorsuló automatizáció korában?
By showcasing Artpool’s web-based practice, “archivuminternetwork” also encourages broader reflection on the present: what new approaches can artists, archivists, and curators develop for archive-building in an era of increasingly rapid automation?
(Curators: Judit Bodor and Roddy Hunter)
For more detailed and related information: