Artpool Art Research Center

Last updated

Artpool Art Research Center is an archive, research space, specialist and media library in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to international contemporary and avant-garde arts, such as Artist's books, artistamp, mail art, visual poetry, sound poetry, conceptual art, fluxus, installation, performance. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

It was founded in 1979 based on the "Active Archive" conception [5] as a center for the type of avant-garde art that was marginalized by the state-socialist establishment. [6] The "Active Archive does not only collect material already existing 'out there', but the way it operates also generates the very material to be archived". [7]

The public archive and library contain unique documents of international and Hungarian avant-garde art and subculture from the 1960s on, such as "correspondence, notes, plans, ideas, interviews, writings, works of art, photo documents, catalogs, invitation cards, bibliographies, chronologies, diagrams, video and sound documents, CD-Roms, etc." [8] Artpool in addition to running its own research projects receives ca. 100 local and foreign researchers, university students, interns, and volunteers yearly. It participates in conferences and in international research groups.

Some of the international avant-garde artists and art-groups who are in the Artpool Archives, and have exhibited and lectured there include: Fluxus artists Ben Vautier, Dick Higgins, Geoffrey Hendricks, Endre Tót, Robert Watts, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Ray Johnson [9] sound poets and performers Jaap Blonk, Paul Panhuysen, Bernard Heidsieck, Tibor Papp, Julien Blaine, Ernst Jandl, mail art and artist's book artists Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Buster Cleveland, Ginny Lloyd, Anna Banana, Vittore Baroni, Guy Bleus, John Held, Jr., Barbara Rosenthal. [10]

History

Antecedents

A piece from Artpool's first postcard series Artpool Postcard.jpg
A piece from Artpool's first postcard series

It was founded, and is still run, by György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay, as an offshoot of György's Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár, which functioned as an independent venue and presented various groups of neo-avant-garde artists from Hungary as well as from Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. [11] In addition to the desire to preserve and continue the heritage of the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár, the surprising amount of responses and exchange materials received as a reaction to the publication of György Galántai, Antecedents, [12] also inspired the foundation of Artpool in 1979. Antecedents was the poster catalog documenting Galántai's 1978 Book Objects exhibition, [13] which was opened by Anna Banana. [14] The catalog included the stamp: "Please send information about your activity" and was sent to hundreds of addresses Galántai and Klaniczay collected previously. [7]

1979-1992

Artpool functioned in the studio flat of Galántai and Klaniczay for 13 years as an underground institution. In addition to maintaining and developing the archive Artpool organized several international mail art projects and exhibitions in various small galleries and clubs in Hungary, [15] and published numerous catalogs and periodicals. [16] It organized two "Art Tours", first to Italy in 1979 [17] and a West-European round trip in 1982 [18] [7] to establish personal contacts and exchange publications with artists who they got in contact through the mail art network. Reports on this second Art Tour were published in the first four issues of Artpool Letter [19] [20] [21] [22] and in the 5th issue of Artpool Radio. [23]

The covers of the first three issue of Artpool Letter Aktualis level.jpg
The covers of the first three issue of Artpool Letter

Inspired by Robert Filliou's concept of the Eternal Network [24] Artpool organized 14 exhibitions at different venues under the heading "Artpool’s Periodical Space" (APS) between 1979 and 1984. [15] The exhibitions Everybody with Anybody (1982), the World Art Post with the participation of 550 artists from 35 countries (1982), the Telephone Concert with the participation of Robert Adrian X (1983), as well as the exhibition Hungary Can Be Yours (1984) which was the last officially banned art exhibition in Hungary, and which was restaged more times after the Regime Change. [25] [26] [27] [28]

Between 1983 and 1985 Artpool  published 11 issues of Aktuális Levél (Artpool Letter), [29] [30] [31] an underground (samizdat) art magazine which was an important source on the parallel culture of that time in Hungary. [1] Produced with a photocopier in 300-500 copies Artpool Letter released documents, reports, and interviews on local as well as international art events. Artpool also issued a thematic cassette series distributed through international exchange under the name Artpool Radio. [32] [33]

Further significant Artpool projects: Textile without Textile (1979), [34] the first assembling published in Hungary, Homage to Vera Mukhina (1980), [35] [36] [37] performance with Júlia Klaniczay and G. A. Cavellini in the Heroes' Square Budapest, Buda Ray University (1982-1997), [38] which was a several year-long correspondence art project, and the Marcel Duchamp Symposion (1987). [39] Artpool also participated in the Amsterdam festival Europe Against the Current in 1989. [40] [41]

1992-2015

Gyorgy Galantai with the exhibition organized from the material of Budapest Session of the 1992 Decentralized World Wide Networker Congress and Artpool's first fax action in the background Galantai Gyorgy az Artpoolban, 1992.jpg
György Galántai with the exhibition organized from the material of Budapest Session of the 1992 Decentralized World Wide Networker Congress and Artpool's first fax action in the background

Following the change of the regime in Hungary, Artpool's former semi-official operation was replaced by non-profit institutional status and the Artpool Art Research Center was opened in 1992. The new institution defined itself as an art archive, research space, art library and bookstore, continuing its previous activities in a new cultural environment, supported by the Budapest Municipal Council. The city provided Artpool a property at Liszt Ferenc square, where the most significant part of the archive, the research space and the library was located between 1992 and 2020. [42] As a continuation of its former enedevors and also reflecting on its new public status, Artpool started the systematic research and presentation of the avant-garde art of the seventies and the eighties. Artpool has also sustained the consequent documentation and archiving of contemporary art and the organization of art projects. The institution maintained its collaborations with prominent actors of the international art world, by inviting many of them to public events in Budapest, including Ben Vautier, [43] John Held [44] or Jean-Jacques Lebel. [45]

Artpool's activities in the 1990s and 2000s were characterized by annual conceptual themes developed by György Galántai. In the nineties it presented important historical trends related to its own activity and collection (e.g. 1993: The Year of Fluxus; 1995: The Year of Performance; 1998: The Year of Installation; etc.), while the program of the 2000s was organized around the conceptual interpretation of the numerals in the post-millennium dates (e.g. 2000: The Year of Chance; 2001: The Year of the Impossible; 2002: The Year of Doubt [in Hungarian the word for "doubt" contains the word for "two"]; etc.). [46]

In the 1990s Artpool organized a number of public events in the Liszt Ferenc Square, such as the Fluxus Flags open air exhibition in 1992; the BEN (vauTiER) SQUARE project, performance, and discussion in 1993; or the Loose Slogans board-exhibition in 1994. Artpool's Budapest based exhibition space called Artpool P60 was opened in 1997 and provided a venue to organize regular events, talks, and exhibitions, [47] such as the reconstruction of Robert Filliou's Poipoidrom [48] as part of the Year of Installation in 1998; the presentation of artists' money in the exhibition Money after Money in 2000; [49] or the exhibition entitled Impossible Realism in 2001. [50] [51] Artpool's website [52] was launched at the end of 1995 and served as a new interface for Artpool's projects as an expanded online space for previous networking and telecommunication activities. Following György Galántai's concept and design, the website was created and is still being developed on the basis of the structural-formal peculiarities of early HTML-language. It  represents both an interface for Artpool's archival operation and a medium of creative experimentations with the possibilities of hypertextuality.

Artpool has been organizing exhibitions in Kapolcs, a small town in the countryside of Hungary, since 1991. The continuation of the program of the Newkapolcs Gallery, [53] operating between 1991 and 1995 was taken over by the Galántai House (K55) in 2009, [54] and from 2015 on Artpool's presence in Kapolcs was expanded with the venue "Area 51". [55] The visibility of Artpool's program in Kapolcs was strengthened by the Kapolcs Art Days, and later on the program of the Valley of Arts Festival. Artpool's exhibition venues in Kapolcs feature audio-visual presentations and experimental curatorial projects by György Galántai with samples from the archive and the collection.

2015-

In 2015 the collection of Artpool became an independent unit of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, as part of the Data and Documentation Department of the museum. The integration became inevitable due to the fact that from the 2000s on it was not possible to raise funds for Artpool's steady operation as a non-profit institution, so it became essential to develop a new funding strategy. The relationship between Artpool and the Museum of Fine Arts can be traced back to the eighties: Galántai designed a poster for the museum already in 1981. The first major collaboration between the two institutions was the artistamp exhibition entitled Stamp Images in 1987; which was followed twenty years later by the exhibition Parastamp – Four Decades of Artistamps from Fluxus to the Internet in 2007. [56] Negotiations on the integration of Artpool's collection into the Museum of Fine Arts began around 2005, and got realized in 2015. [57] The year 2020 marks another turning point in Artpool's history: by the end of this year, Artpool has become part of the Central European Research Institute for Art History (KEMKI), a newly established sub-institution of the Museum of Fine Arts in Hungary, integrating the documentation and archival departments of both the museum and the Hungarian National Gallery. [58] [59]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fluxus</span> International network of artists, composers and designers

Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus is known for experimental contributions to different artistic media and disciplines and for generating new art forms. These art forms include intermedia, a term coined by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins; conceptual art, first developed by Henry Flynt, an artist contentiously associated with Fluxus; and video art, first pioneered by Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell. Dutch gallerist and art critic Harry Ruhé describes Fluxus as "the most radical and experimental art movement of the sixties".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artistamp</span>

An artistamp or artist's stamp is a postage stamp-like art form used to depict or commemorate any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries or bogus Illegal stamps in that typically the creator has no intent to defraud postal authorities or stamp collectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mail art</span> Artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service

Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School and the Fluxus movements of the 1960s. It has since developed into a global, ongoing movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Maciunas</span> Lithuanian artist

George Maciunas was a Lithuanian American artist, born in Kaunas. A founding member and the central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers, he is most famous for organising and performing early happenings and for assembling a series of highly influential artists' multiples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">György Galántai</span> Hungarian neo-avant-garde and fluxus artist

György Galántai is a Hungarian neo-avant-garde and fluxus artist, organizer of the events of the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár which run from 1970 to 1973 and founder of the Artpool Art Research Center Budapest. During the Communist Era of Hungary, he organized illegal, underground avant-garde exhibitions and therefore he was considered to be a "dangerous element" by the Party for spreading western propaganda, and was monitored by secret police, who opened the file "Painter" solely documenting his activity. From the late seventies he started an intense correspondence with fellow artists all over the world, joining into the network of mail art despite the Iron Curtain limiting his access for information. In 1979 he created an archive for these correspondences and other documents which he collected on Hungarian neo-avantgarde movements and initiated Artpool which became the largest archive of new mediums such as fluxus, visual poetry, artists' book, mail art, artistamp etc. in Central Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilka Gedő</span> Hungarian artist (1921–1985)

Ilka Gedő was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist. Her work survives decades of persecution and repression, first by the semi-fascist regime of the 1930s and 1940s and then, after a brief interval of relative freedom between 1945 and 1949, by the communist regime of the 1950s to 1989. In the first stage of her career, which came to an end in 1949, she created a huge number of drawings that can be divided into various series. From 1964 on, she resumed her artistic activities creating oil paintings. "Ilka Gedő is one of the solitary masters of Hungarian art. She is bound to neither the avant-garde nor traditional trends. Her matchless creative method makes it impossible to compare her with other artists."

The Marinko Sudac Collection, based in Zagreb, Croatia, has been created with a clear collecting strategy based on the region of Central and Eastern Europe, additionally spanning from the Baltic area to the Black Sea. The guiding principle of the Collection is systematic exploration, researching, and promotion of the avant-garde practices which have been marginalized, forbidden, and at times completely negated due to the historical, social and political circumstances. In this context, the Marinko Sudac Collection gives the most complete and comprehensive overview on the art of this region. The Collection starts at 1909, and it show the continuity from the first Avant-Gardes, through neo-avant-garde and New Artistic Practices, ending with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The global uniqueness of the Marinko Sudac Collection is also seen in the kind of media it contains. It contains not only traditional artworks, such as paintings, sculptures, and photographs, but it gives equal importance to documentary and archival material. Great importance is put on these almost forgotten media, which enable research of specific phenomena, artists and the socio-political situation which affected this type of art. The Collection contains a great number of museological units, and it treats the documentary and archival material on the same level as traditional artworks. By examining the units contained in the Marinko Sudac Collection, one can read not only the art scene or the art production of a certain artist, but the full status of the society, the socio-political atmosphere of the region in which this art was created in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milan Knížák</span>

Milan Knížák is a Czech performance artist, sculptor, noise musician, installation artist, political dissident, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art associated with Fluxus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Held Jr. (mailartist)</span>

John Held Jr. , is an American mailartist, author and performance artist who has been an active participant in alternative art since 1975, particularly in the fields of rubber stamp art, zine culture, and artistamps. He is one of the most prominent and respected promoters and chroniclers of mail art.

Endre Tot born in Sümeg, Hungary, 1937 is a Hungarian artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Bleus</span>

Guy Bleus is a Belgian artist, archivist and writer. He is associated with olfactory art, visual poetry, performance art and the mail art movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veronika Harcsa</span> Musical artist

Veronika Harcsa is a Hungarian jazz singer and songwriter, known to be active in various musical genres. She has received the Hungarian Music Award for Best Jazz Album and Best Alternative Album.

Mark Bloch is an American conceptual artist, mail artist, performance artist, visual artist, archivist and writer whose work combines visuals and text as well as performance and media to explore ideas of long-distance communication, including across time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginny Lloyd</span> American artist

Ginny Lloyd is an American artist, noted for her work with mail art, photocopy art, performance art and photography. She organized the Copy Art Exhibition in San Francisco in 1980 with programming devoted to promoting xerography. Her work was included in the exhibition, From Bonnard to Baselitz: A Decade of Acquisitions by the Prints Collection 1978–1988 and listed annually since 1992 in Benezit Dictionary of Artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Miller (artist)</span>

Larry Miller is an American artist, most strongly linked to the Fluxus movement after 1969. He is "an intermedia artist whose work questions the borders between artistic, scientific and theological disciplines. He was in the vanguard of using DNA and genetic technologies as new art media." Electronic Arts Intermix, a pioneering international resource for video and new media art has said, "Miller has produced a diverse body of experimental art works as a key figure in the emergent installation and performance movements in New York in the 1970s... His installations and performances have integrated diverse mediums [sic] and materials."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck Welch</span>

Chuck Welch, also known as the CrackerJack Kid or Jack Kid, was born in Kearney, Nebraska in 1948. He wrote "Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology", with a foreword by Ken Friedman, which was published and edited by University of Calgary Press in 1995. The Eternal Network and the Crackerjack Kid were mentioned in a review of mail art titled "Pushing the Envelope" in 2001, and the archivist and curator Judith Hoffberg wrote about him in her publication Umbrella. His awards include a Fulbright Grant and NEA Hilda Maehling Fellowship.

János Vető is a Hungarian visual artist, photographer, video artist, musician, songwriter, singer and composer. He has been involved with non-conformist photo art, visual art and alternative music culture since the late '60s.

Péter Türk Hungarian visual artist. In 1969, he became a member of the Szürenon group, then an important participant in the Hungarian neo-avantgarde scene. In 1970, he took part in the R-Exhibition, held at the University of Technology (Budapest), and was an exhibitor at György Galántai's Balatonboglár Chapel between 1970 and 1972. In 1976, he participated in the exhibition titled Exposition. Photo/Art. His first significant solo show was held at Budapest Galéria Józsefvárosi Kiállítóterme in 1987, under the title Psychograms, Phenomena. He participated in many international group shows. His works can be found in the collections of Kunsthalle Praha (Praha), the Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art (Budapest), and the Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest), among others.

Michael Bidner (1944-1989) was a Canadian graphic artist and painter noted for his use of xerox and microfilm technology. He was from London, Ontario.

Zuzu-Vető are two artists composed of Lóránt Méhes Zuzu and János Vető NahTe, who work together as a collaborative art duo.

References

  1. 1 2 Broekman, Pauline van Mourik (1 December 2004). "Relational history". Mute. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  2. ↑ "General Information on the Institution and its Operation (2012)". Artpool Art Research Center.
  3. ↑ Beöthy, Balázs; Klaniczay, Júlia (14 January 2019). "Artpool – Registry – Courage – Connecting collections". cultural-opposition.eu. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  4. ↑ Klaniczays, Júlia; Anne Thurmann-Jajes (2019). Hungary / Budapest: Artpool Art Research Center. Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net. pp. 137–156. ISBN   978-3-947449-20-0.
  5. ↑ "Active Archive". artpool.hu. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  6. ↑ "IS[R]A". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
  7. 1 2 3 "Institute of the Present | We Are Always Working on the Roots…". institutulprezentului.ro. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  8. ↑ "Artpool – Monoskop". monoskop.org. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  9. ↑ Bloch, Mark, "Fluxus Portal". retrieved 20 November 2009
  10. ↑ Listing of Artpool's international projects at the Artpool website
  11. ↑ "The Short Story of the Chapel Studio at Balatonboglár".
  12. ↑ "Anna Banana and György Galantai poster mailed to Gregory Battcock, 1978, from the Gregory Battcock papers, 1952-circa 1980". aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  13. ↑ "Book Objects exhibition".
  14. ↑ "Anna Banana's recollection".
  15. 1 2 "Artpool Events (1979-1991)".
  16. ↑ "Artpool's Publications (1979-1991)". artpool.hu. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  17. ↑ "ARTPOOL´S ART TOUR, 1979". artpool.hu. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  18. ↑ "ARTPOOL´S ART TOUR, 1982". artpool.hu. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  19. ↑ Júlia, Klaniczay (January 1983). "Artpool's Art Tour – Nice, 10 July – Ben Vautier". Aktuális Levél (Artpool Letter). 1..
  20. ↑ Klaniczay, Júlia (February 1983). "Artpool's Art Tour – Le Moulin de Ventabren, 7 July – Julien Blaine". Aktuális Levél (Artpool Letter). 2..
  21. ↑ Klaniczay, Júlia (March 1983). "Artpool's Art Tour – Kassel, 18 June – Documenta 7". Aktuális Levél (Artpool Letter). 3..
  22. ↑ Klaniczay, Júlia (April 1983). "Artpool's Art Tour – Maastricht, 24 June – Rod Summers". Aktuális Levél (Artpool Letter). 4..
  23. ↑ "ARTPOOL RÁDIÓ 5 / RADIO ARTPOOL No. 5". artpool.hu. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  24. ↑ Artpool. "Artpool's Fluxus Pages". artpool.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  25. ↑ Debeusscher, Juliane (7 June 2011). "Interview with Artpool Cofounder Júlia Klaniczay". ARTMargins. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  26. ↑ Kotun, Viktor (20 March 2019). "Hungary Can Be Yours / International Hungary, Young Artists' Club, Budapest, 1984 and 1989 – Registry – Courage – Connecting collections". cultural-opposition.eu. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  27. ↑ Tumbas, Jasmina (2012). "International Hungary!: György Galántai's Networking Strategies". ARTMargins. 1 (2–3): 87–115. doi:10.1162/ARTM_a_00020. ISSN   2162-2574. S2CID   57568977.
  28. ↑ Fowkes, Maja; Fowkes, Reuben (2017). "Eastern Europe Can Be Yours! Alternative Art of the Eighties" (PDF). Afterall. September 2017.
  29. ↑ Al (Aktuális Levél / Artpool Letter) online
  30. ↑ Broekman, Pauline van Mourik (1 December 2004). "Relational history". Mute. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  31. ↑ "ARTISTS' BOOKS IN (what was formerly known as) EASTERN EUROPE – A Table by What, How & for Whom / WHW". Printed Matter. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  32. ↑ "Artpool Radio".
  33. ↑ Whalen, Allie (2015). "I Will Counterrevolution / I Will Stop All The Motion" Archiving Exile, Samizdat, and Underground Audio from the Eastern Bloc. New York: New York University. pp. 50–71.
  34. ↑ "Textile without Textile".
  35. ↑ "Homage to Vera Mukhina".
  36. ↑ "György Galántai: Homage to Vera Mukhina, 1980 – MG+MSUM". mg-lj.si. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  37. ↑ Klaniczay, Júlia, ed. (2018). The Mukhina Project: Interpretations of Being in György Galántai's Oeuvre. Budapest: Vintage Galéria.
  38. ↑ "Buda Ray University".
  39. ↑ "Duchamp Symposion".
  40. ↑ "Europe Against The Current 1985-1989". imaginarymuseum.org. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  41. ↑ "Poster".
  42. ↑ "Opening of Artpool Art Research Center".
  43. ↑ "Artpool's Guest: Ben Vautier".
  44. ↑ "John Held, Jr".
  45. ↑ "Jean-Jacques Lebel".
  46. ↑ "ARTPOOL EXHIBITIONS, PROJECTS, EVENTS FROM 1992".
  47. ↑ "P60".
  48. ↑ "The Poipoidrom".
  49. ↑ "Money after Money".
  50. ↑ "Institute of the Present | We Are Always Working on the Roots…". institutulprezentului.ro. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  51. ↑ "Fluxus East: György Galántai responds to six questions".
  52. ↑ "Artpool's website".
  53. ↑ "Newkapolcs Gallery".
  54. ↑ "Galántai House (K 55 / 53)".
  55. ↑ "Area 51".
  56. ↑ "ParaStamp".
  57. ↑ "Artpool Integral".
  58. ↑ KOVÁCS, ZOLTÁN (22 March 2020). "Past and present". MúzeumCafé. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  59. ↑ Júlia Klaniczay; Anne Thurmann-Jajes (2019). "Artpool Art Research Center" (PDF). State of the Art Archives: Internationale Konferenz für Archive zur Dokumentation von moderner und zeitgenössischer Kunst (in German and English). Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net. pp. 137–156. ISBN   978-3-947449-20-0.

47°31′13″N19°04′24″E / 47.5202367163838°N 19.073256972973994°E / 47.5202367163838; 19.073256972973994

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.