It’s the 1970s, both turbulent and vibrant. Andrzej Partum establishes the Poetry Bureau in Warsaw. Artpool is founded in Budapest by György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay. While in today’s world, information can spread freely at a dizzying pace globally, half a century ago, similar actions could have been indicative of a more exciting thing—a similar yet strikingly great way of thinking, not imitation.
“The collections were developed simultaneously in Warsaw and Budapest on the private initiative of the artists, which provided us with a basis for comparison. Materials gathered by Andrzej Partum and György Galántai elaborate on the untold stories about the grassroots artistic initiatives, exhibitions organised outside the mainstream scene, production, and illegal distribution of prints. The archives preserve alternative art records from the final decades of the twentieth century, offer materials for examining global connections of artists, present examples of anti-systemic aesthetic, represent interdisciplinary artists and those conducting unconventional experiments with form”, says Marta Pierzchała from the Department of Scientific Documentation at the Łódź Art Museum (Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi).
As part of the project “Archives of the Future”, two visits occurred between both institutions so that they could familiarise themselves with the contents of the archives and conduct an analysis of their topics, geography, and chronology. Then, there was a presentation of archives, using interactive touchscreens arranged on a wall that displayed digital images of artefacts and supplementary materials created during the project, including promotion videos. An exhibition of selected objects from the Artpool archive accompanied the installation. Thanks to modern exhibition technology, materials physically located in separate and distant places were combined in one space—in the Platan Gallery in Budapest.
Office in the attic
The Poetry Bureau operated in Andrzej Partum’s apartment, in a small Warsaw room in the attic by 38 Poznańska Street. The eponymous bureau was an ironic reference to the top-down art administration in the Polish communist period (PRL). By establishing the Bureau, Partum became an independent centre for recording creative facts, as well as propagating and popularising poetic forms outside the official circulation. The 1970s Poland witnessed the beginnings of conceptual art, which quickly gained popularity among young artists. Official art circulation was still rather dependent on the authorities. Art materials were scarce, expensive, and available only to the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP) members. A factor conducive to the spread of conceptualism was the change in the very matter of art—art could not be made without costly and rationed materials, so it used photographs, actions, everyday objects, ephemeral prints etc., allowing artists to omit the condition of membership to ZPAP. Conceptual art stood in opposition to power. Artists addressing the subject of creative freedom could not separate it from the issue of civil liberty.
The 1970s Poland witnessed the beginnings of conceptual art, which quickly gained popularity among young artists. Official art circulation was still rather dependent on the authorities. Art materials were scarce, expensive, and available only to the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP) members
The Poetry Bureau also functioned as a gallery, a place for meetings and showcases. Partum himself sent out his conceptual prints, like the one reading “You are ignorant of culture and art”. He received correspondence from people involved in art in every corner of the world. This way, he conducted an ideas exchange within the international postal systems, creating the so-called mail art, a type of network for circulating art outside the institutional channels of galleries and museums. The Poetry Bureau was active until 1984. It is assumed that Partum collected hundreds of thousands of materials. Over 400 of these labelled folders of artists from all over the world are now in the Museum of Art in Łódź.
Archive of the avant-garde
Founded in 1979, the Hungarian Artpool Archive was initially a collection of objects and documents preserved after the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár, a studio and independent art gallery run by György Galántai, banned by the authorities in 1973. The name Artpool combines two words—art and pool, as Artpool’s first location was in a private apartment in Buda near the Lukacs baths. However, “pool” can also be connected to biology—a gene pool, a combination of all the genes the genetic diversity of a population depends on. Artpool hosted “genes” of many artists, theorists, and amateurs, including Andrzej Partum, who received letters and packages from Hungary. It is unknown if Patrum ever wrote back, but he certainly placed the mail in specifically marked folders at the Poetry Bureau.
Both the Poetry Bureau and Artpool were the institutions related to the unofficial circulation of art and the avant-garde. They did not enjoy the favour of authorities, maybe because, in a way, they seemed to take away their power as bureaus and archives are typically the domain of authorities, allowing them to control the circulation of documents and preserve what they considered important. Had it not been for the initiative of two artists in distant Eastern European cities, perhaps our knowledge of the art of that period would be much more insufficient. Some of the preserved prints might not have even been created, others would have been lost.
Had it not been for the initiative of two artists in distant Eastern European cities, perhaps our knowledge of the art of that period would be much more insufficient. Some of the preserved prints might not have even been created, others would have been lost.
Research and exhibition
The Artpool archive consists of 300 meters of shelves. Partum’s archive—448 A4-size folders that take up 5 meters if lined up one after another. Both survived to this day and are now under the custody of cultural institutions. The Artpool archive has been overseen by the Fine Arts Museum in Budapest since 2015, and since 2021, it has operated as part of the Department at the Central European Research Institute for Art History (KEMKI). The Poetry Bureau of Andrzej Partum has been owned by the Łódź Art Museum since 2020. As part of a collaboration between these institutions, both archives were examined and compared in terms of their structure and content.
“The goal of our short study visits was to visually inspect the contents of selected materials and to create a map of both archives, highlighting points of interest. Among the categories we identified during the research were self-institualisation and self-organisation, freedom of language/new alphabets, mail art, relations and information, Fluxus, ecology, identity, feminist art, interventions, and manifestos. We then used selected topics to write scripts for the multimedia show at the exhibition. Moreover, this meeting provided us with an opportunity to exchange information about the artists, the course of events announced in invitations, and to identify people in the photographs or to learn details of past events. Both archives are not only collections of documents, but they also speak for maintaining connections and artistic pursuit of freedom”, Marta Pierzchała explains.
The goal of the project was also to present the archives in an appealing and modern way, to go beyond the boundaries of format, access, and location. The solution was a system of large-scale touchscreens called Magic Wall that offered the opportunity to present an unlimited number of documents in one place simultaneously. Looking at the archives was similar to using a phone, which encouraged more activity and interaction with content. As such, the archive was presented successfully in the way that felt most familiar to modern audiences.
The project could be viewed as a continuation of both archive founders’ intentions. As Marta Pierzchała explains:
“The Artpool’s founding manifesto is the concept of an ‘active archive’ that involves diligent collecting and cataloguing of the materials received by mail, as well as working with them actively. Galántai intended to share information, to which access was limited at that time. It’s not just about maintaining relationships between artists and crossing boundaries but also about being action-oriented towards the future. Contemporary researchers are compelled by multiple points of view in the narrative about life and art in times of resistance”.
In the project „Archives of the Future” were involved:
Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź:
Aneta Błaszczyk-Smolec, Maciej Cholewiński, Monika Cywińska-Pryt, Tatiana Matwij, Daniel Muzyczuk, Marta Pierzchała, Marta Skłodowska, Marcin Stasiewicz, Izabela Wojtyczka
Artpool Művészetkutató Központ /Szépművészeti Múzeum – Közép-európai Művészettörténeti Kutatóintézet (KEMKI):
Bárdits Éva, Eleőd Ildikó, Fehér Dávid, Gink-Miszlivetz Sára, Halasi Dóra, Horváth Anna, Klaniczay Júlia, Kotun Viktor, Molnár Eszter, Schuller Gabriella.
Polish Institut, Budapest:
Jarosław Bajaczyk, Tímea Jerger, Wojtek Kriston, Dominika Teske
Graphic design:
Krzysztof Ducki
Film and photo realization:
HaWa
The Magic Wall:
„Back & Rosta”
Archives of the Future was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the Inspiring Culture programme.
