Névtelen

The view of the town / our view of the town . The view of the town does not only change with the seasons. ... and not only with new buildings, with replastering old ones, building over vacant sites, changing pavement for stone, planting trees and flowers, the advertisments enveloping everything, the padlocks proliferating in Janus street and ... Our view of the town is, although less and less often, changing by new public sculptures, too. The sight of Havi-hegy would be not be the same without the "Crucifix" by Rétfalvi Sándor (1970), just as the hillside of Mecsek without "The Memory of Liberation" by Makrisz Agamennon (1975). Apart from our likes and dislikes, the view of the town is changing through a deceptive interplay of spontaneity and consciousness and we who are living here can only hope for its getting nicer and better. Unfortunately, even the bad and the ugly can become accustomed in the long run. One can easily get accustomed and attached to the good and the nice. In fact, that is why, on a mild May afternoon, lingering about at the terrace of Kioszk while looking towards Sétatér (Promenade) can be pleasant. This moment one may have the feeling that this square has always looked like this. However, imagination is delusive: even the oldest one of the sculptures that determine the panorama of the areal complex including Dóm tér (Cathedral Square) — Püspöki kert (Episcopal Garden) — Sétatér (Promenade) — Szt. István tér (Saint Stephen's Square) has not reached the age of one and a half hundred. Moreover, if we consider that the Old Christian Mausoleum, which influences the whole square, was finished only by the 80s, we might easily believe that the current image of the square has been formed in the last two or three decades. On the other hand, exactly twenty years ago artists/arts took possession of the square in a different way, as well: "There was a supplementary programme of the 1978 Summer Theatre in Pécs: the open-air exhibition of young artists from Pécs. Textile artists, ceramists, painters, graphic artists and sculptors, eleven in number, brought their ideas and plastic concepts into reality by using the most different kinds of materials. These works meant a playfully lovely and fresh dash of colour on the promenade, the surrounding lawn, in Barbakán kert (Barbican Garden) and even inside Barbakán (Barbican) itself. Passers-by could touch, spin or carry the works further and anyone who felt like, could even climb into a sculpture. To put it briefly : "sculptures" placed onto the street came close to the people, made them stop for a while and encouraged them to express their opinion. Artists did away with the heroism of art. In fact, these things were shop works, not meant for eternity (...) A few of them were not even made of durable material - perhaps one of the reasons that made them look fresh (...) We should sense the main point somewhere in the artist's driving us to think, express our opinion, take up a standpoint, and that his or her work initiated debate which everyone was trying to respond in his or her own special way." (Romváry Ferenc) When we conceived The View of the Town "Action", we also took this tradition - today existing merely in memories, descriptions and pictures - into consideration. Anyway, we were supposed to do so. Nevertheless, we set a different kind of task for ourselves: persuading creators to enter a corner of space having been chosen by them, and within a single gesture, redraw its fixed mental imprint, its image of order, image of space (or map). Naturally, we treated all the plans that were based on living space in and occupying it in an artistic way as synonyms of our idea. A double effort has been formulated in the objectives of The View of the Town "Action". On the one hand, to address creators with the challenge of creating such a powerful work of art that would change the ordinary image of space; on the other hand, to confront a spontanous audience emerging from the ones walking in the space (square) with a seemingly simple dilemma: to what extent habituation behaves as the demiurgos of the beauty of a place (space) and to what extent conscious shaping does so. Following this event, so that almost a generation's time has passed, we can surely say that the creators, who were actually present, followed their predecessors' footsteps, and made an attempt at redeeming time having been exiled into the cracks of stones and the façades of buildings. The creations had a randezvous with what is passing in the name of what is eternal and - by their happening only once - they gave place to what is taking form "here and now", what is forthcoming enlessly. After all, we still may have a question haunting : have we received or have we found something remaining with us, too? The answer might be the following : living memories of a townscape that was made alive.
Molnár Béla, Kiss Sándor