Mészáros Júlia, N.: 35 éves a Győri Művésztelep. Történeti áttekintés, művek, életrajzi adatok, beszámoló a jubileumi találkozóról - Győri művészettörténet 4. (Győr, 2003)
Colin Foster: Mai művészteleptípusok a világban
As I’m the last lecturer it would be proper to sum up what has been said . But it may be pure chance that my lecture deals with the same themes, so I’d make the original introduction, extended with some sentences. I’ld like to speak first of all as a symposium consumer and not as an organizer, despite the fact that I’ve already organized several symposia. Six kinds of symposia I experienced abroad figure in my list. Then I’d like to study which category can be used in Hungary in the future. The headwords are a little bit funny. The well-paid symposium (the audience are laughing). The eighties were especially good; two months with family in Japan, air tickets and other costs paid plus 10 thousand dollars. Bremen; one month, air ticket, plus 10 thousand marks. Next year Sweden: 50 thousand dollars. These are clearly symposia on the basis of invitation, they can’t be applied for. Showing what projects are meant, I worked last month in Korea, where a new park is established in a smaller town, with a budget of 180 million dollars in half a year. Statues had been ordered from thirty foreign artists. The average fee of the symposia on the basis of invitation is 4 and 10 thousand dollars or euros, depending on countries. If you continuously participate in symposia on the basis of invitation you can come by quite a tidy income. I’m not particularly interested in this, I take part in one, maximum two symposia a year because working on my own at my studio is important to me. If we think of a work for public site of the same size here in Hungary its execution takes between 3 and 6 months, and it’s not sure that we can pocket much more money in the end. The work of this kind passes off in 3 weeks and is free of stress. The competition. Italy is the original homeland of this „kind of symposium”, which unfortunately also spreads in other countries. 2-3-4 cubic metres of stone must be carved during 2-3-4 days, usually in the main square of some little town, without any pay and travel expenses. In the end, somebody receives a big money prize. Usually it is the audience that votes for the prizewinning statue. These are very popular, supported by sponsors, whose clothes are advertised by several artists. The educational symposium. I regualrly send my pupils to symposia; last year I sent three students abroad, this year two of my pupils participated in the symposium of Zalaegerszeg I led, and originally it was me who sent Jóka Lukács as a DLA student to the symposium of Nagyatád. I thank Katalin Balogh for her offer, I can imagine that next summer I’ll send some of my students with Jóka and a young teacher to carve wood. Tamás Gaál mentioned the international students’ symposium organized by Zoltán Pál at Villány, I was COLIN FOSTER: Present-day Types of Artists’ Symposia in the World 326
