Opening of the document-exhibition of the 10-year-old Artpool Art Research Center

Introduction by Miklós Marschall [video]

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
Dear Júlia Klaniczay and György Galántai,

The title of the jubilee exhibition, a reference to the future and the past, is brave since simple readers like myself have been inundated with advertising slogans like “the future has begun”, “the future is in the past”, “the future is in the present”, “the past is in the future” and let me not add further permutations here. I don’t know if it’s true for Black & Decker that the future began with them but I do know that something began in earnest with Artpool.
As we know, the history of Artpool didn’t begin ten years ago.
The event that led up to its foundation was György Galántai’s chapel studio opened in Balatonboglár in 1970, which, until its closure by the authorities in 1973 functioned as a centre for tolerated and banned (Avant-garde) art and as such was the “cradle” of the change in Hungary’s cultural system. When they established Artpool six years later, in 1979, György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay made another attempt – to quote, like I did before, Artpool’s excellent homepage – to create an underground art institution accommodating new artistic concepts. Between 1979 and 1990, existing on the verge of being tolerated and banned, they organised numerous exhibitions and events and issued numerous publications, anthologies and albums under “unofficial” circumstances. Between 1983 and 1985 they published 11 issues of AL (Topical Letter or Artpool Letters), a samizdat art magazine, which continues to be the only source for researching the unofficial art events of those years.
As can be read on the homepage, Artpool sought to end the isolation of Hungarian contemporary art, while undertaking the mission of documenting the Hungarian art events not endorsed by the official cultural policy of the time and therefore not given publicity. The Artpool archives they built documents the intellectual/spiritual and artistic ambitions and efforts of the generations of artists in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
The word “archives” is misleading of course since the Artpool project has always sought new forms of social activity, organised events and participated in all the events by being a shaping force, while documenting and archiving everything and facilitating the free flow of information. As they write, the “Avant-garde” archives can be interpreted as an organic and open work with its scope of activity being the wide world; it follows a specific objective and direction, and while being sensitive to all changes, it itself is also changing.
The change in the political system in Hungary allowed Artpool, by then internationally acclaimed, to emerge from its private existence and present itself to the public. This is the 10-year anniversary that we are celebrating today. Back in the past many of us at the Metropolitan Local Government worked hard to have Artpool endorsed and for it to be granted a venue. In the end we succeeded. I’m glad that my former ‘perpetrators’ are here today: László Baán and Ferenc Körmendy.
For me, personally, Artpool will always be an emblematic institution of Budapest’s cultural change along with with the Festival Orchestra, the Merlin Theatre and Trafó.
The Artpool Art Research Center has a very diverse profile: its physical and virtual spaces are home to exhibitions and performances, the promotion of new trends in artistic thinking and use of new tools as well as educational, collecting and research activities. The programme of the opening exhibition ten years ago illustrates this very well:
- Beke/Beke: Tükör, Mirror, Spiegel, Miroir (originally exhibited at the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár). Mirror works by 35 artists, with an introduction by László Beke.
- Marcell Duchamp was born 100 years ago.
- Fluxus and other early stamp-pictures – this laid the foundation for one of the world’s biggest “artistamp” collections.
- Slide-bank, which evoked the Chapel Exhibitions in Balatonboglár and which also contained “Mail Art” and computer works.
- Sound archives and electronic message boards (electronic poetry).
This was the debut of the Artpool Art Research Center and, as could be seen, it has stayed true to this mentality ever since.
It’s hard to single out particular events from the past ten years, but for me personally the most memorable one was the Fluxus flags exhibition on Liszt Ferenc Square in 1993.
Looking back, one is struck by how consistent and coherent Artpool’s events were, following such a well thought-through sequential course.
1993 was the Year of Fluxus, 1994 was devoted to Miklós Erdély, 1995 was the Year of Peformance, 1996 the first Year of the Internet, 1997 the Year of Network, 1998 the Year of Installation, 1999 the Year of Context, 2000 the Year of Chance, 2001 the Year of the Impossible and 2002 the Year of Twoness. I don’t know what next year’s theme will be but let me be a bit selfish and suggest that 2003 or some later year be devoted to Transparency. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that art and transparency are connected and a great many productive ideas could come forth on this basis.
Let me close with a famous quote, which Galántai used at the opening of the Fluxus exhibition of 1993.
“Two monks are talking about a flag. The flag is flying, one of them says. The wind is blowing, the other one says. Then the sixth patriarch arrives and upon hearing them he says, it is neither the flag, not the wind but the intellect.”
I wish the founders, this great couple, Júlia Klaniczay and György Galántai, many more decades of unimpeded flying. I also wish all the best to the curators who support them, László Beke and Endre Szkárosi.
Having said that, let me now recommend the exhibition for your attention.