MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
TOP SECRET!
B u d a p e s t, September 1981
R E P O R T
(about the activities of László Beke, Miklós Erdély, Dóra Maurer, György Galántai, and András Bán)
(excerpt)
For several years the Chapel Exhibition in Balatonboglár provided the venue for the representatives and associates of the underground movement to display their works deemed questionable by the authorities and to organise happenings, including flat-theatre performances led by Péter Halász, who represents and propagates antisocial concepts. Artists from Czechoslovakia, the GDR and Poland also attended and on occasion took part in these performances. Guests at these events included György Poór, Miklós Haraszti, István Eörsi, György Konrád and others. (…)
In his Art Pool Archives György Galántai collects materials by the most radical Hungarian and foreign representatives of “Avant-garde art”, and promotes their activities and actions in various propaganda publications Up until now he organised the propaganda for numerous actions. He propagates the collecting of stamp designs and other “artistic works” as well as materials for sound and film archives, and he prepares these for ‘publication’ and distribution.
So far he has established contact with about 4,000–5,000 foreign individuals and organisations. A vast amount of material arrives from abroad for his calls for projects. A significant proportion of these materials are hostile in their content and are obscene and politically objectionable works, creations, newspaper clippings, stamps and designs. The first exhibition organised from the material thus far collected for the Art Pool Archives was held in the Mini Gallery in Újpest [a district in Budapest].