COURAGE

Mbledhje koleksionesh

The exhibition represented the first radical turn away from the sober, modernist presentation of artworks towards a new conceptual form of display. Various artists took part in the exhibition, among them representatives of the Group of Six Artists. The artists were invited to display selected objects of personal meaning to them. Zoran Popović exhibited a radio, a chessboard and a photo album; Marina Abramović showed the objects 'Cloud I' and 'Cloud II' and a pair of glasses; Neša Paripović chose an ashtray, a polaroid and a parallelepiped; Era Milivojević displayed sewing patterns, and Raša Todosijević the young woman ‘Marinela’ who appears in his video art, a blue side-table with a bottle on it, and the object ‘Chair for little Calder’... Through the presentation of the most diverse objects with a specific meaning for them, the artists examined the status of untypical art objects and broke with the classical work of art in the form of classical sculpture or painting as taught at the Academy. 

Meeting of Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian artists, August 26–27, 1972, organized by László Beke.

Artists active in the framework of the ‘New Art Practice’ first showed their work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade in 1972. The Museum provided space for the presentation of new art. At the 1972 exhibition, Young Artists and Young Critics 71, presented as part of the Museum’s official programme, the Group of Six Artists jointly showed their work alongside that of other protagonists of the ‘New Art Practice’. The exhibition presented a series of works by young artists, including new art forms, installations, performance art and films. Young curators and critics were invited to take an honorary role in realising the exhibition. The exhibition connected new art concepts with new approaches to art criticism.       

Orfeo built two houses in Pilisborosjenő (15 kilometres from Budapest), where the members lived and worked together. Before this, some of the members of the group had lived in Szentendre in István Malgot’s house, but later, this building was too small for the company. The houses in Pilisborosjenő were built between 1972 and 1974, and all of the work was done by the members of the group. One of the houses was home to the puppet group, and the other building was home to the theatre studio. The former members of the group remembered this period as a time of hard physical work and close cooperation.

The first private dance house was on 6 May 1972, at Könyvklub at Liszt Ferenc Square in Budapest, where Ferenc Novák and his followers showed the simple form of széki dance (Szék, Sic is a Romanian village). The event was organized by dancers of the Bihari Dance Ensemble, Jolán Foltin, Lajos Lelkes, Antal Stoller. The dancers of the Bartók, the Vadrózsák, the Vasas Dance Ensembles also took part in it; the music was provided by Béla Halmos, Ferenc Sebő, Péter Éri. The main supporter of the event was György Martin who helped to Béla Halmos and Ferenc Sebő too. Martin showed them the Collection of Szék by László Lajtha and other records what later became the music collection of dance house movement. Halmos and Sebő learnt by Sándor Tímár in 1971 how to play music for dancers.

"Music and dance like in Szék” was read on the invitation for the first private dance house in 1972. Opposite the entrance, there was a photo by Péter Korniss who also spent a lot of time in Szék and documented the traditional Transylvanian peasant culture. At the door, Lajos Lelkes and Antal Stoller welcomed the guest like in Szék. Originally the organizers wanted to organize the traditional dance house of Szék, but later there were ethnographical, sociological lectures at the dance houses.

During the year 1972, there were three more private dance houses at the Könyvklub.

The end of the 1972 Béla Halmos, Ferenc Sebő, Mihály Sipos travelled to Szék because they wanted to learn about the dance house of Szék. Here Béla Halmos heard the band of István Ádám "Icsán” and started to learn folk songs by them. At Budapest when Béla Halmos organized the dance houses, the idol for him was the dance house of Szék where that was a natural event every time.

During the years the dance houses at Budapest became more and more popular where the youth had possibilities to learn and hear about that information and interest which were not allowed at school or universities. The HVDSZ, VDSZ, VASAS, ÉPÍTŐK were the main Ensembles at the dance houses. From 1973 the members of the Bartók Dance Ensembles taught folk dances at Fővárosi Művelődési Ház. New folk music bands were founded like the Muzsikás and the dance house movement became popular at all around Hungary.