magyar

27–28 October
“Small Journey” festival of the 70s and 80s in the Almássy Square Leisure Center.

TTT COLLECTION*
SELECTION FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE ARTPOOL ART RESEARCH CENTER

Periodicals - Other publications, catalogues - Cassette tapes - Badges
Stickers - Posters - Secret Police Documents [video]

Introduction by Edit Sasvári:

If I wanted to write a humorous piece, I would start my introduction to this exhibition by saying that the abbreviation TTT is associated by the generation of those who are in their thirties now with a popular TV series for teenagers called Tízen Túliak Társasága (literally: Company of the Ten Plus). They are actually the company of those who are well over thirty; people who personally experienced the last two decades of the Kádár Era and who inadvertently think of the ‘holy trinity’ of the cultural policy linked to György Aczél when they hear the 3Ts standing for the buzzwords of the time: “tiltás” (ban), “tűrés” (tolerance), “támogatás” (support).
The theory of what was called the 3Ts was outlined in 1957 and launched after 1958, upon the official introduction of the principles of cultural policy; in effect it never followed the norms it propagated in its written form. Its application in practice was haphazard and varied from person to person; in the area of literature, for example, it ranged from the banning and even imprisonment of some artists to their support, while other authors were sanctioned by some of their works being banned while others being reprinted and in some cases their oeuvres even being awarded the Kossuth Prize. The tools of implementation were not consistent but they were designed to force artists to observe the principle of loyalty in culture as prescribed by Kádár’s policy, i.e. the principle of “those who are not with us are against us”.
This exhibition brings the public a selection of documents recording the unofficial or semi-official fine art events of the late seventies and the eighties as well as the materials documenting the party state’s policy of controlling the art scene in an attempt to throw light on the contradictions within the system of the 3Ts. The self-published and officially published but soon banned periodicals and other publications as well as catalogues and posters of “bootleg exhibitions” with a low circulation that are preserved in the archives of the Artpool Art Research Center are requisites of the counter-culture without which the change of the political system in Hungary could not have taken place. Key to this approach and culture were private initiatives, the work undertaken by cultural centers and small galleries in and outside of Budapest, and those institutions of unofficial culture that were allowed to operate but were under strict surveillance.
The above events were not covered by the press of the time at all or the public were misinformed about them. The counterintelligence services of the time, however, collected a vast amount of information that serve as valuable and researchable sources of documentary value; samples of this are also included in the various sections of the exhibition.

* The name “TTT (tiltott=banned, tűrt=tolerated, támogatott=supported) COLLECTION” was coined by the organiser of the festival titled “Small Journey”. <>