At the request of Jean Jacques Lebel, here you have the story of a humorous incident that happened at the open air exhibition of Ben Vautier in Budapest in September 1993. Many names of streets and squares have changed all over Hungary following the change of the regime. Plates with new names were added next to the old ones with no changes but a slash. This inspired me in 1993 to rename the Franz Liszt square (Liszt Ferenc tér) in the 6th district of Budapest to BEN vauTiER during Ben's show in the framework of the Budapest Autumn Festival, 1993. Pronouncing BEN you can also understand BEM, so that people listening superficially could believe that the squareęs name refers to the famous general Bem fighting in 1848 in the Hungarian revolution. Many people asked whatęs wrong with Franz Liszt? Is he considered a communist either or what did he committed? But none knows whether the best story was true or just an opposer of our Fluxus show has invented it. It is said that a woman became unwell and the one who called the Ambulance reported the Bem square of the 6th district to the ambulance officers who went to the Bem square of the 2nd district since this is the only one nominated to the general. The secretary of the Committee of the Conservation of the Cityscape issued an official letter reporting the case of the regrettable misunderstanding and suggested another aesthetic solution or the removal of the illegal name plates.
The eight BEN TÉR plates on the corners of the joining streets of the square were in a kind of dialogue with the fifteen huge banners hanging on the branches of the trees, which hold signed critical sentences, such as: I AM EGOIST (BEN), I AM A LIAR (BEN), etc. Following the official letter these six meter long photocopied banners started to disappear from the high without leaving a trace. This was also a kind of dialogue, a bit unforgettable black and white humour. (György Galántai)
I AM A HYPOCRITE (BEN) / KÉPMUTATÓ VAGYOK (BEN)
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