This volume
is a collection of texts and documents selected from and illustrating the
history of Artpool, a non-profit artist run institution in Budapest, established
in 1979 by György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay and operating since 1992 under
the name of Artpool Art Research Center.
The book
focuses on Artpool’s direct antecedents (among them the events at György
Galántai's Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár, 1970–1973), on the foundation,
development, art projects and events, as well as the preferences and issues
pertaining to art research (not independent of the historical and social environment
they were conceived in) that had formed throughout the course of many years and
decades.
"The
occasion of the publication of ARTPOOL The Experimental Art Archive of
East-Central Europe is a milestone in the history of art for its
documentation of a remarkable period in the chronicles of conceptual,
performance, installation, and video art, as well ephemeral mediums such as
mail art and artists’ stamp sheets, postcards, rubber stamp imprints, artists’ writings and samizdat publications.
The work represented in the Artpool archive is astonishing in its scope and
quantity, quality of imagination, intellectual force, and the courage of the
artists who created it. This volume presents an opportunity to reflect on the
events that brought Artpool into being, to acknowledge that while originating
in the context of East-Central Europe, Artpool’s community has always been
international, and to evaluate its broad contributions to world culture and
society." (Kristine Stiles)