Newkapolcs Gallery / Újkapolcs Galéria
The “Newkapolcs Gallery” was György Galántai’s first attempt after the change in the political system in Hungary to revive the spirit of his independent and autonomous chapel studio in Balatonboglár, which was banned in 1973. The publicity of the events organised in the exhibition space of his house in Kapolcs was helped by the Kapolcs Art Festival, which attracted a large number of visitors to the small village with its diverse cultural programmes for adults and children. From the following year onward, the exhibition space became the venue for the special summer projects of the Budapest-based Artpool Art Research Center.
July 7-12 1991
THE FIRST TEST EXHIBITION OF THE FIRST GALLERY IN KAPOLCS
The “guest exhibition” of PAJTA GALLERY in Salföld included György GALÁNTAI’s colour Xerox prints entitled “Interleg Spaces” and his chrome steel sculpture entitled “Interleg Sounds”. (The exhibition’s material was first displayed in 1989 in the DAAD Gallery in Berlin.)
Artpool’s neon signboard will begin its operation with a text by Vilém Flusser:
//NATURE AS A WHOLE IS A SYSTEM IN WICH INFORMATION DISINTEGRATES PROGRESSIVELY ACCORDING TO THE SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS. HUMAN BEINGS STRUGLLE AGANST THIS NATURAL ENTROPY NOT ONLY BY RECEIVING INFORMATION BUT ALSO STORING AND PASSING IT ON – (IN THIS RESPECT THEY DIFFER FROM OTHER FORMS OF LIFE) – AND ALSO BY DELIBERATELY CREATING INTORMATION.
THIS SPECIFICALLY HUMAN AND AT THE SAME TIME UNNATURAL ABILITY IS CALLED ’MIND’, AND CULTURE IS ITS RESULT, I.E. IMPROBABLY FORMED, INFORMED OBJECTS.
(from: Towards a Philosophy of Photography)
July 16-20 1992
AUDIO-VISUAL AND ELECTRONIC CHILDREN-TOGETHERNESS
creativity training and exhibition with children
The slogan is: "We build from what we have, and what we have we have inside us."
Available tools: felt-tips, paper, scissors, glue, and a multi-color copy-machine. The audio equipments are: two tape-recorders and a Casio Rapman. During the 5 days long workshop copies of the first "original" products were transformed, modified and recycled. The walls of the exhibition hall were covered with pictures made by children of different age and skills. Those works together with the background music improvisation gave an idea of how a culture can evolve.
(Artpool, 1992)
July 15-18 1993
CONCRETE COUNTRY POETRY
Hungarian version of the creative stamp-action presented in Marseille during the “Subjective Artpool” exhibition where a rubber stamp ABC with different letter-types was displayed and the visitors were allowed to use it. The audience-made works were added to the show continuously.
In Kapolcs participants made works by stamping on paper, on their own clothing or body - as a conclusion we can say that the city has been more visual and the countryside more concrete.
(Artpool, 1993)
July 16 1994
MIKLÓS ERDÉLY MEMORIAL DAY
PASSIVITY EXCERCISE, VIDEO EVENT - field-work by GYÖRGY GALÁNTAI
("...passivity is loose assignment to the impressions which is as important part of the artistic work as activity itself." Miklós ERDÉLY)
Galántai used the videocopy of Erdély´s film, "The Train Trip" in a live videoinstallation where he mixed the faces of the passive audience with the original pictures of the film in a way where the presence of Miklós ERDÉLY was preserved.
Related writings: " Ismeretelméleti tézisek" (Thesis on the Theory of Knowledge), "A költészet mint ön-összeszerelő rendszer" (Poetry as a Self-Assembling System)
(Artpool, 1994)
July 7,8,9, 14,15,16, 21,22,23 1995
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE-VIDEOS
36 hour-long screening of performance-videos. Works by 300 artists from 20 countries, classics and current representatives of hungarian and international performance art.
To the list presented in Kapolcs has been widened with a couple of Fluxus videos for a second screening at Artpool during the Budapest Autumn Festival.
(Artpool, 1995)