THE ARCHETYPE OF THE PLACE OF THE THIRD KIND
THE CULTURAL PERSONAL SPACE
3 Vécsey street 3rd floor, flat 8

György Mihalovits: “this place was defined by the concept of the total artwork, this was the key […]; this concept was fully embraced and developed by us on a daily basis”. Pál Petrigalla regularly held evenings for listening to records: oratoriums on Mondays, operas on Tuesdays, Wagner on Wednesdays, etc.

“Everyone who mattered in Hungary’s intellectual scene came to this place.” These people included e.g. Béla Hamvas and Katalin Kemény, Ernő Hetényi Buddhist lama, Miklós Szentkuthy, János Pilinszky, Árpád Mezei, Lajos Kassák, Dezső Korniss, Endre Bálint and other members of European School.
The musical lectures given by Dr László Végh included Christian Wolf, Pierre Boulez, György Kurtág, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgar Varèse, electronic music, etc.
The following artists exhibited here between 1963 and 1965: Gábor Attalai, Imre Bak with István Nádler, Csaba Koncz with Sándor Csutoros, Csáji Attila, István Ventilla with István Lugossy, Elek Lisziák, Péter Molnár with Kálmán Kecskeméti, the latter of whom said that “Pál Petrigalla’s flat was the centre of the world” […]

His friends smiled at each other knowingly and bade farewell to Pál Petrigalla (1922–1976) at his funeral with the following words:
“… you, who never worked in your life, who didn’t give a damn about work but only affirmed the enjoyment of life, for whom money and success were meaningless …” (Rudolf Ungváry)

(The quotes and the photos are from the film titled Törvénytelen Muskátli [Illegal Geranium, 1996])