1987. január (1-6. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
I <-!HVtteARUW (^) o PTQMK*- ,,| > mii 24/D Little RuíscII Street, LONDON, WC.! ■ Ttl. D-Í-4S0 zi 26 ■ G. krassi 6/1937 23ta January, 1937 Artworks confiscated in Budapest by Hungárián police On the 28th January, 1937, Hungárián police confiscated all of the items /39 pieces/ of a dissident art exhi'oition in Budapest. Last Summer an International fine art competition was announced in The New York Review of Books /14 August, 1985/ by the dissident Hungárián art group "Inconnu". /Members: Peter Bokros, 33, Tamás kolnár, 32, and Róbert Pálinkás, 22J The theme of tne competition was "Iné Fighting City" in commemoration of the thirtieth anniveisary of the Hungárián Revolation in 1955. The art competition was sponsored by Timotny Garton ash, Danilo Kis, George Konrád and Susan Sontag. In a later announcement /The New York Review of Books. 4 December, 1935/ the Inconnu Group described the police threatening they had received /they were told to be banned from Budapest if they were to go ahead with the exhibition/. They alsó said that there was "a reason to suppose that somé of the artworks sent through mail were never delivered by orders of the authorities" and they asked the artista to notify "Hungárián Gctober Information Centre" in London if they send something to Budapest. By the use of this method it cecame clear tnat at least tnree artworks sent to Budapest have never been delivered to the addressees /the works of Joseph Dobay, Jo Siddens and Iris Stocubridge, all living in the U.S.A./. On the 13th öf December, 1985, the Hungárián police raided the fiat of Jenó Nagy samizdat publisher and, among other things, confiscated somé of the artworks which had arrived fór the competition and were kept in Nagy’s house. After these sinister antecedents Inconnu Group decided to open their exhibition and auction on the 2Sth of January, 1937, 17 p.m. in a down- town priváté fiat in Budapest. All of tne preparations had been ready and silk-screen printed invitation cards had been distributed among tneir friends wnen, at 12 o’clock, five nours oefore tne planned opening time of the exhibition Hungárián police raided the fiat and confiscated all of the 39 items of the exhibition. The artworks were sent by artists from Hungary, Britain, the United Btates, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia. A case will be made against the organizers of the exhibition, included the tenant of the fiat /Tibor Philipp/, and heavy fines are likely. Kevertheless, the exhibition was opened on schedule with an audience of somé 100 persons. In the piacé of the confiscated artworks the copies of the police receipt were displayed. Tne room was decorated, and the opening speeches remembered the 1955 Revniution, spoke of the inquisition pursued by the totalitarian authorities and empnasized tne fact tnat tne poor in Hungary were robbed because the artworks would have been auctioned and the money given fór charity purposes. So the "Fighting City" was once again defeated. Bút, again, the victory was nőt complete. Before the planned exnibition the artworks nad been recorded in videó and the pictures were shown on TV soreem to tne audience. Catalogs will be made and sent to tne contributors. Bút tne question re- rnains: How these fascist actions fit in tne "liberal" image of Hungary and in the alleged "giasnost" /openness/ of the Goroachev éra. [ ________ ___________' ________40
