How does a pipe get into a mill?
The First Hungarian Art Repository in Tapolca-Diszel
MúzeumCafé 12.
The founders of The First Hungarian Art Repository, Ákos Vörösváry and Dr Kinga Gyökér, turned a disused mill into the exhibition venue of the foundation in order to display the incredibly rich art collection they had compiled. The works of 20th-century and contemporary Hungarian artists from Ákos Vörösváry’s own collection and the estate of painter Sándor Altorjai could not have been exhibited in a more suitable place at the beginning of the 1990s. The Tapolca Municipal Authority chose Béla Kondor’s portfolio entitled 12 Small Etchings in exchange for the derelict mill, which was turned into a gallery. Later the foundation also purchased the neighbouring house where the last miller’s widow lived. Entering the building makes it obvious that it is one of Hungary’s special galleries. When architect was commissioned to oversee the renovation of the mill he was specifically asked to preserve the huge interior as one, and thus it is separated only by two gallery levels. The annual exhibitions entitled To Painted Skies or (Everbodywantstobehappy) present the works of prominent figures as well as astounding creations of lesser known contemporary artists. For 18 years the material of the exhibition has been dug out of the depth of studios and collection storerooms, so that when they feature next to one another they provide both entertainment and a startling experience. As Ákos Vörösváry writes in an introduction: “Some may regard a few of the exhibition gestures as provocative, but I can assure all that that has been far from the curators’ intentions. They have repeatedly filled the open space by employing the gentle pressure of productive thinking, since they firmly believe that arranging an exhibition is an independent genre and a display is itself an autonomous work of art.” There are many plans. One of the longest standing is to display the pipe collection which can already be seen in a small part of a wing of the building. The items for the future pipe museum will be provided by Ákos’s father, László Vörösváry, who has an extremely rich collection including special pipe bowls, pipe racks, ornate cigar holders, tobacco pouches, cigar cutters, cigarette packets and matchboxes of various periods, advertising posters, as well as individually designed ashtrays. Edit Molnár’s photographs of famous smokers from poets László Nagy to János Pilinszky and works of contemporary artists complement the theme. The collection presenting the history of smoking requires exhibition space of several hundred square metres and is planned for a separate building. Until then two new exhibitions can be seen in the Diszel Gallery of the First Hungarian Art Repository. One features the theme of kitsch, while the other is an exhibition of the Fresh Gallery from Budapest. The latter concerns the 20 years since the 1989-90 changes in the language of painting. Ákos Vörösváry’s and his associates’ exhibitions can be seen in the mill from summer to summer. It has been a tradition that locals visit the current exhibition on St. Martin’s day when the village has its fair. On this open November Sunday as a new fair-going custom the village residents pay a visit to the gallery after everyone has personally received a written invitation. Laid tables await the guests. As food for thought, the pictures of the exhibition are displayed on the walls – a new world conceived in a broadly interapreted programme.