AL Actual / Alternative / Artpool Letter

11 issues of a bookwork like samizdat art magazine published in 1983-1985 by Artpool in Hungarian
(with summaries in English) about art events and art people in Hungary and abroad.

AL 1, AL 2, AL 3, AL 4, AL 5, AL 6,
AL 7, AL 8, AL 9, AL 10, AL 11

AL 6. (September 1983) - SUMMARY       

Cover by György Galántai (1982). Two modified mail-art works.

3. Artpool's guests:

American musicians Malcolm Goldstein, Joseph Celli and David Moss who came to Europe for the Vienna Festival. With their Vienna hostess, Grita Insam they paid a one day visit to Budapest. The article presents them and their work.

9. Small record labels by Tamás Szőnyei.

The two independent labels, Crass from London and Ata Tak from Düsseldorf speak of the ways they had organised their publications, of how much money they had needed at the beginning, of where the money had come from, of how profitable the venture is, and of the prospects they envisage for small labels.

16. “The enlarged reproduction of art” by Géza Perneczky.

One chapter from the author's book “Where is avantgarde when it is not or the other way round”. published in Hungarian in Cologne, 1983.

In this interesting article the artist-author Perneczky approaches the history of art and the major art movements of this century from a purely economic and market point of view. He analyzes how money, capital, and modern art are interwoven. He declares that “art is not a part of the mental but of the material culture and thus it depends much more on the production of goods and the prosperity of material goods than other cultural products”. Finally the article roughly sketches the situation in countries and epochs where and when money has not been distributed via new artistic movements.

28. AL 6. SUPPLEMENT (two Din A/3 posters): Opera de la Bastille. Documentation of the entry to the international competition for the plans of the new Opera of Paris by János Balázs, Endre Borza, László Rajk and Lőrinc Starck.

29. Swimming pool by Adám Sylvester.

Article by historian of architecture Gábor Hajnóczi on this daring new swimming pool with a suspended roof structure, on the evaluation of works in architecture and on architecture as a system of communication.

31. The Studio of Young Architects organised a meeting on a private competition of architecture, March 9, 1983.

Invited participants were: architects Péter Mátrai, Bálint Nagy and Péter Ungár, carpenter-philosopher Gábor Révai who initiated the competition, historian of architecture Gábor Petróczy and art historian Anna Wessely.

The excerpts from the hours-long debate published here reveal the problems of contemporary Hungarian architecture, the defencelessness of Hungarian architects and the controversies of official - or in this case private - competitions.

40. New six-meter-high sculpture by György Galántai: Airborne Step Formation, 1983.

40. AL 6. SUPPLEMENT: “Voices West-East” Translations by György Dalos.

41-49. Excerpts from Magyar Műhely (Hungarian Atelier) 67, published in Paris. This issue is entirely devoted to the work of Kassák-prize winner Miklós Erdély (born 1923).

41. “Mondolat” (Say-thought) by Miklós Erdély

42. “Idő-Mőbiusz” (Time-Moebius) by Miklós Erdély

43. “Lehetőség vizsgálat” (Possibilities investigated) by Miklós Erdély

50-51. Photos of the event and exhibition by Miklós Erdély (Bercsényi Klub, 1980)

52. Interpool, News on Hungarian and international art events.