Archives of the Futures

"Artists are like seismographs foreseeing future tectonic movements. In the same decade, the 1970s, unusual institutions were established both in Budapest and Warsaw: Artpool by György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay, and Andrzej Partum’s Poetry Bureau. It was clear to everyone that something extraordinary was happening. Even if only because any disobedience invited the disapproval of the authorities, and bureaus and archives were the domain of the state.

Over time, the artistic spaces created by Galántai, Klaniczay and Partum transformed into a real Archive and a real Bureau full of materials and responsibilities: they corresponded, they filed documents, they received visitors.

What were they doing, what were they working on? Let us be aware that the activities involved artists from both sides of the Iron Curtain, which is why their experiences and everyday lives were extremely different. However, the passage of time has caused the political context to recede somewhat into the background. What came to the fore were ideas that only now, after several decades, have become a natural part of public discourse.

The “clients” of the Archive and the Bureau posed a lot of questions about forms of self-organization, network-building, maintaining international contacts, the shape of mutual relationships, methods of communication, the extent to which they interfered in reality, the willingness and capacity to enact social change. Some wrote manifestos. They considered expanding the possibilities of the language they used and the meanings of individual words. They attempted to create new alphabets. They created visual poetry. They created a space for ecology. They discussed topics which were pioneering, truly revolutionary, suppressed and virtually non-existent in the public debate – at least in the eastern half of Europe – such as identity, feminism or emancipation movements. At the time, these were controversial, dissident concepts.

Browsing through the materials collected in Budapest and Warsaw is an extraordinary experience. Their epistolary nature, (remember that many of the documents they hold have arrived by mail), dictated the form and format of the works – they were small, condensed, full of drawings, comments, short literary forms, and observations.

What were they then? Conversations. What are they today? Letters sent into the future."

Text by: Maciej Cholewiński, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź

Program:

5 November, 11.00: Press briefing

5 November,  17.30: Vernissage

7 November, 17.30: Finissage - Maciej Cholewiński talks with Júlia Klaniczay, Artpool co-founder 

Location: Platán Gallery (1061 Budapest, Andrássy út 32.)

Opening hours: 10.00 – 18.00.

The "Archives of the Future" project presents the results of research work on the archives of the "Poetry Bureau" founded by Andrzej Partum in 1971 and Artpool founded by György Galántai and Julia Klaniczay in 1979.

A three-day interactive presentation was implemented in cooperation with Muzeum Sztuki Łodz, Museum of Fine Arts - Central European Research Institute for Art History - Artpool Art Research Center, and the Polish Institute in Budapest, in the frame of the Inspiring Culture (Kultura Inspirująca) program, co-financed by the  Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland).