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Much love on this wonderful day, your 70th birthday.
Being 70 years old in his case is interesting
because he is only starting his life now.
I’ve known Gyuri since my childhood,
although maybe he doesn’t remember anymore.
We met in my father’s home village,
where his parents also lived.
Dear magician!
It’s so good to still be able to talk
to someone about what magic is.
If there were six or seven of you in this city,
in this country, or in this basin,
I would worry much less.
If I had to say what the most important thing
is about Gyuri
I would say it’s his smile.
In 1973 I was on holiday with my father
in Balatonboglár
and he somehow found out
about the chapel exhibition.
This was one of my first memories.
The image I preserve is full of sunshine,
the light and shadows of leaves play on his face,
the light sparkles on his reddy grey beard
and he is always smiling.
And in Boglár he was a true host.
But not a host in a traditional sense
because he was so liberal, so open-hearted
despite carrying the burden of it all,
including the retorsions.
I was 21 at the time and
made a mental note to myself
that this was the man who made the
first free exhibition possible in Hungary.
Everybody knows it well.
I felt that this was an exciting
and very important thing.
A man who survived that year with sanity,
not giving up on his own art
and even breaking new ground
is truly extraordinary.
I have to say that probably the most outstanding
deed from a new Galántai
would be to again organise
a chapel exhibition like “that one”.
At which somebody would be able
to use the tools of the fine arts
to cast doubt upon the astoundingly intransigent
and stupid political omnipotence of today
like Galántai and his whole milieu,
those wonderful people,
did back then in the chapel exhibition.
I wish Gyuri all the best on his 70th year.
I myself have long passed this age
and I wish him many active years!
Hi!
I wish him a very happy birthday.
Keep it up!
When I last ran into him I noticed that
he was just as lively as ever.
His eyes were still sparkling as they always did.
My message to him is to preserve this sparkle.
He should just keep that smile for a long time!
What I liked doing best with Gyuri
Hi Gyuri!
was the zine.
I was besotted with the Artpool Letters
and liked to work on it very much.
You did some amazing things! Thank you!
The Artpool Letters had a serious clientele,
so Gyuri had an enormous leather shoulder bag
full of the latest issues.
I have never had a subscription in my life.
No newspapers or magazines whatsoever.
This was the only one
that I actually bought on a regular basis.
I picked up the zine and saw my article in it.
I felt the same ecstatic, amazing happiness and joy
as when my first article was printed.
Actually, I was even happier because
I had to get permission for that,
but this one was published
even though nobody wanted it to be.
If Gyuri had not created Artpool Letters,
that period would virtually be undocumented.
So he saw into the future.
The focus of Gyurka’s activities
has always been the future.
He is able to sense the future in the present
and this is a very special gift.
Happy birthday!
Many happy returns my friend!
May you live another 70 years!
I would like to do the next interview
on his 140th anniversary
and I wonder what I will remember by then.
Happy birthday!
This was our broadcast from 15 Bródy Street.
Gyuri and I discussed various theories
and practical matters every day,
because we were at
the Young Artists’ Club every evening.
Towards dawn nights at the Club
could get pretty wild.
But for some reason I knew that with Gyuri
I could always have a normal conversation,
which could be very exciting.
He was a stable point for me, along with Juli,
who was a wonderfully nice girl.
There was always a young man there
taking photos and filming.
A young man and a girl.
What stood out was
how beautiful the two of them were.
Two beautiful young people
in the grey Hungary of the time.
They complement each other so well.
Perhaps what Gyuri lacks is in Juli
and the other way round.
I think that Gyuri has absolute vision.
Ever since I’ve known him
if he ever found something
to be of value – and not just face value –
he could explain why.
His boundless optimism was always impressive.
He found opportunities in everything
and he was always curious.
He tried this and that
and he saw all the possible consequences
and the future course of every idea.
He is brilliantly able to select what is of value
and what is contemporary and exciting artistically
but this whole thing could only be built into a system
because God set a good wife by his side.
If I was a rich art collector,
I’d definitely employ him.
The truth is I hadn’t seen Gyuri for twenty years.
Even if he has aged a bit I’m sure
he hasn’t lost his good qualities
and he will stay young forever.
Long life and all the best!
Miklós Erdély had a table there
and anyone could sit at it.
So we, those young art academy students
to whom others had an aversion,
were embraced by Gyurka and Miklós.
Since Erdély there hasn’t been anyone in Hungary
who has been able to integrate the artist community.
Erdély and Galántai and communication and art.
These are closely linked.
Happy birthday!
Many happy returns!
How old? 70?
Long life to you!
For me Gyurka was the person
who truly represented modern art.
He showed us an insight into things
- such as conceptual art -
that we regarded as important
and were good to discover
because at that time
there was a lack of opportunities.
In the iron works in Dunaújváros
there was an artists’ colony of iron sculptors
and it was there that I first met Gyuri.
He was a brilliant organising artist
and he had a knack for handling everyone
who got in his way.
I wish you good health and a long life Gyuri!
Gyuri, I wish you health and happy birthday!
I found something very good on a postcard
that he’d copied and distributed in 1991.
It was a quotation from Eric Satie, who said:
“When I was young, I was told:
You'll see, when you're fifty.
I am fifty and I haven't seen a thing.”
And then Galántai added:
“I’m now 50 and Satie comes to mind.”
I wish him many productive, rich and creative years.
I wish him good health and forgetfulness.
This is Einsteinian wisdom.
Ha-pp-y bir-th-day!
On the occasion of your birthday my wish is
that Artpool endure forever, as long as he,
his children and grandchildren carry it on.
He played an important role
in the formation of the Inconnu group
and in our finding the direction we’ve been going.
We did a great many things together
and I am very grateful to him
for being able to join the art profession.
It came up in conversation between Juli and I
how old you are.
I said you were the same age as me, i.e. just over 50.
Juli burst out laughing saying you were 70.
20 years have not just passed by for me,
you are exactly the same
as when I first got to know you.
You are that same fresh, cheeky and provocative
but extraordinarily honest fellow.
A good relationship formed between us
so I went to see him often.
I recorded music from him.
He had a lot of interesting stuff.
He had good connections with the West.
I got to know him as an interesting artist
who experimented and kept in touch with the world.
He already had a lot of connections with the West,
which we did not have.
So I looked up to him for that.
He should also be discovered as a sound creator.
It was his idea to try and make music with
these sculptures that produced sounds accidentally.
I wish you a very happy birthday
and as much success in the decades to come
as you have enjoyed until now.
We were on DAAD scholarships in Berlin.
It was there that I realised I had met a free man.
Gyuri, it was in 1988, when you and Juli were on DAAD scholarships in Berlin
that it turned out that Imre Oravecz was your neighbour.
I jumped up and went across. He lived right opposite your door.
A little time passed and I went back to the flat
where I heard some rummaging behind the door.
The point being that Oravecz appeared and was barely willing to open the door for me.
But in the end he invited me in and we had a really good talk.
I said to him: “Look, come on over, the Galántais are here
and we can have a good chat”.
I was really hard to drag him over.
He was highly reluctant to come and it took a lot of effort to pull him across.
What’s amazing is that there were two great Hungarian artists
of around the same age living opposite each other for months
but not exchanging a word.
I was able to break through this weird situation.
The little wine cellar behind
Komjádi swimming pool comes to mind
He would stand there and work on his A5 leaflets
and draw up the plans and drafts for his new work.
It was there that we talked the most.
It was in 2005 that an intensive relationship began
and then I was lucky to be his guest in Kapolcs.
I feel reassured that there is such a person as Gyuri.
I was always happy just to see him.
I feel just the same to this this day.
It’s hard to believe he can write such
a prestigious number next to his name
because he is really much younger!
I am very happy to have got to know him.
Dear Gyuri, may God bless you!
All the very best to you Gyuri!
Take care of yourself
and live as long as you feel like it.
I wish you a long and healthy life!
Well done, Gyuri, but I’m trailing after you.
I’m only 60 and you’re seventy
so I’ll be catching up with you soon enough.
Look after yourself.
May he live a lot more.
I wish him happiness in continuing what he must.
I’m sorry I can’t be there.
I can’t believe he’s 70 years old.
I wish you another 70 years at least with much love!
Hi Gyuri!
Hi Gyuri!
In any case, I call him Galántai rather than Gyuri.
To me that sounds more appropriate.
And then Galántai told me:
"Have some creativity."
Be creative! I’m saying this to him now.
Be like a child.
He is able to work with anybody
without overwhelming or suppressing them,
and helping them realise themselves.
I called this the Galántai effect.
I’ve always brought up Gyuri as an example
and said look how Gyuri strives to help himself.
And by helping himself he helps others, and a lot too.
There’s no point dealing with what you cannot help
but only with things you can.
Galántai is exactly the kind of person
who deals with things he can do something about.
And whatever he deals with
becomes worthwhile through him.
We started on the organisation of an exhibition.
Three of us arrived at Gyuri’s place
and he asked if we had had a beer so far that day.
We said we had. He said alright let’s talk then.
That’s how
That’s how the work got going.
He professes techniques – like Fluxus and Mail Art –
that pull you out the world of “professionalism”.
This is his documentarist approach
and he sticks to it.
I think that’s why he has stayed young,
so may he have a long life before him!
There was a place in the chapel
and if you were thrown out of there,
you would go to Frankel Leo Street.
If you threw yourself out of there into public life,
you would go to Liszt Ferenc Square.
And, interestingly,
you have stayed there a long time.
All of you.
For me he was the first man
who became a father figure.
We took the envelopes and the photocopied sheets,
folded and stamped them one by one,
working a bit like in a manufacture.
We sat around a big table
and everybody worked out some kind of
efficient method that was still very humane.
I am very grateful to Gyuri for this.
He constantly made me think.
It was very inspirational to talk to Gyuri
because he always asked what my opinion was
on something as an equal partner.
He can talk freely about himself, about art
and how he sees the world and his own work.
It is really liberating for young people.
I recall that he could stand for hours and...
and talk about all sorts of things.
I generally met Gyuri when I accidently
bumped into him in a corridor
or as he appeared from behind a door,
and then he started a conversation.
It is always a good feeling and encouraging
when he comes over to the research table
or to my table and asks what I am doing.
He would add a few sentences or bring up a story.
These are always very good and valuable moments.
The knowledge that is preserved
and can be researched here at Artpool
is very important.
That’s why for me, and I believe for many researchers
who come here, this place is a paradise.
For Gyuri there is no separation between life and art:
his whole life is the pursuit of art.
I wouldn’t limit him to the works he made
because those form only a part of what he does.
He is Hermes himself.
He is exactly like Hermes.
He conveys adroit messages,
he is always on the road
and trying to keep people together.
Understanding a cultural challenge in two minutes,
in its complexity and in a structured way,
it is extraordinary.
He exploited the opportunities,
pulled together Artpool
and expanded it with links to the right and to the left.
I constantly heard these philosophical expressions
that he tended to overdo a little.
I still laugh about it,
and I’ve told him.
He browses the Internet for new technical things
with which he can expand Artpool’s tools.
He is a bit like a scientist living in the back of beyond,
who mostly invents everything himself.
Not just the things themselves but also
how they can be placed in a global context.
There are elfish beings
who never lose their charm,
so I don’t believe he will ever get old.
The most edifying and interesting thing
is that he perpetually renews his views and his idiom.
I wish continual renewal for Gyuri.
It would be good to run into him more
on the tram or in other places,
if he feels like it.
Dear Gyuri, go on living as long as you like!
And stay forever healthy!
Preserve and build this fantastic archive
with Juli for a long time.
Wishing you a lot of time, luck
and good health – me, a true philologist.
Happy birthday!
May God keep you in the best of health!
I wish you a very happy birthday
and would offer a toast if I were present.
A very happy birthday
and may God grant you another 70 years!
Happy birthday!
I am grateful for everything that Gyuri gave me.
God keep him! I wish him a very
very happy birthday and another 70 years!
I wish you a very happy birthday
and keep standing a lot.
A very happy birthday!
My wish is that you find those people,
or they find you, with whom
you can advance Artpool’s future.
He holds what he represents intellectually
and spiritually to be important
and to be shared with a large community.
He makes sacrifices and does a lot for this.
Although I haven’t seen him for a long time,
I know that we still think in the same way.
So he is a grounded person.
György Galánti is a young man.
He has the character of a young man.
I remember when I got to know him
I was surprised to find out how old he was.
Even now I am a bit flustered
when I talk about him.
I have the greatest respect for him
and how he and his wife have been
building up the Artpool archive.
His genepool, his blood and everything
must have been replaced seven times
so he’s no longer Gyuri but an extra-terrestrial,
but what’s for sure is that he does his job well.
He’s passionate
and professional.
He’s the silk screen.
The opposition would not have worked
without such a silk screen.
Then he’s the archive-builder, the collector.
And, thirdly, there is "Interleg Spaces".
For me György Galántai means these three things.
I want to assure him
there are fellow-fighters around.
Gyuri we have already learned
that one should never give up.
So don’t ever give up!
Live for a minimum of 30 more years
as I would like to greet you on your 100th.
After that I would like you to live until my 100th
when you are 111, and then
I wouldn’t mind if you come up with another idea.
Please give Gyuri a hug for me on his birthday.
I hope that we will meet in the future because
I believe we have a long road before us.
Being 70 can be tolerated.
Think of it with good spirits and in happiness.
You are a long way off 75,
unlike your friend, who is not too far off it.
I can hardly believe he is 70,
in my mind he will never be older than 30.
He should wait until I catch up
with his 40 years.
Or 35? How old is he? Ageless.
I think Gyuri must be around 25-30.
70 years old? What’s to celebrate about that?
- 70 is not much. - It's a round number.
I’ll soon be celebrating my 85th birthday.
He’s just a kid!
I wish him much of the kind of success
and international ties
that they recently achieved
at their Barcelona exhibition.
There have been ups and downs.
I wish that his 70s should be
– since it sounds quite good –
should be really an up.
I wish him much happiness!
And also perseverance because I think
he has a great deal yet to do
and I would not like to work
instead of him for even a second.