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
its co-organizer: I wrote the application to the EU. Its main point is that we had to deal with the students of the University of Pécs and four foreign partner institutions. The EU support is for 5 years, and every year the symposium is organized in different countries. This year the Közelítés („Approach”) Association of Pécs - which consists of young artists - won 64 euros for similar purposes. The 5 young artist groups hold a symposium in one another’s country during one year. As a comparison, this amount given for a project equals the annual budget of the Pécs Gallery. These EU moneys are also at other symposia’s disposal. I also worked in Africa, where 10 granite sculptors from all over the world had been invited to make sculptures, but we were also requested to teach the local artists how to carve granite. This was financed by the UNESCO. Arte povera. (I apologize to Bonito). Poor art. Poor symposium. Grub, booze, women, no kind of scholarship: a well-known form of symposia in Hungary but also in other countries. Practically, the movement of symposia started like this; it is questionable whether this is enough nowadays. In my opinion, it isn’t, and that’s why we are here. Exotic journeys. A sculptor sometimes accepts a not too well-paid symposium in some exotic country. This is a kind of cultural tourism; you are ready to go to South America, the Far East or Africa for little money because (I apologize to the ladies) it is a bit more exciting than Zalaegerszeg. The symposium with a good programme. You don’t necessarily need much money to organize an attractive symposium, if we work out good programmes, affording a possibility that the artists haven’t at their disposal at their studios. I’d mention as examples the symposia I organized at Villány from 1986 to 1988, where we were engaged in country planning. This cost a lot of money, but a good programme can also be cheap, if there are processes or technological means the artist hasn’t got. See the electrographic symposia. I participated in a symposium in Finland where we made large Land-art-like installations on the forzen sea, with ice and other materials. When Stockholm was Europe’s cultural capital we were invited to make sculptures of wood and straw that we burnt up at night. These were very original programmes and professionally great challenges. You could learn a lot from the unusual processes and use of materials. Which of these models can be used in Hungary? I keep the first one, the wellpaid symposium for the end. The competition-like symposium isn’t advisable, since the competition contradicts the character of the symposium. However, as I’ve already mentioned, it’s popular with sponsors and audience. As we have seen the educational symposium is workable but you can’t imagine universities as bottomless economic sources. Actually you must find out how the co-327
