What Will Be Already Exists: Temporalities of Cold War Archives in East-Central Europe and Beyond
Edited Volume of Selected Papers from the Artpool40 Conference
In February 2020, we organized an international conference entitled Artpool40 - Active Archives and Art Networks on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the foundation of Artpool and its concurrent relocation to the Central European Research Institute of Art History of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. The study volume related to the conference, edited by Emese Kürti and Zsuzsa László, is published by Transcript, one of Europe's leading independent scientific publishers.
How do artist archives survive and stay authentic in radically changed contexts? The volume addresses the challenge of continuity, sustainability, and institutionalization of archives established by Eastern European artists. At its center stands the 40th anniversary of the Artpool Art Research Center founded in 1979 in Budapest as an underground institution based on György Galántai's »Active Archive« concept. Ten internationally renowned scholars propose contemporary interpretations of this concept and frame artist archives not as mere sources of art history but as models of self-historicization. The contributions give knowledgeable insights into the transition of Cold War art networks and institutional landscapes.
Edited by Emese Kürti and Zsuzsa László
Texts by Zdenka Badovinac, Judit Bodor-Roddy Hunter, David Crowley, Lina Džuverović, Daniel Grúň, Emese Kürti, Karolina Majewska-Güde, Kristine Stiles, Sven Spieker and Tomasz Załuski.
The open-access electronic version of the book can be accessed here.
On the cover: György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay performing The Life of the Statue Vivante in the storage room of the Savaria Museum, Szombathely, 1981 (photo by József Rosta)