Philosophical Knowledge Transfers in György Galántai’s Art Archival Practice and Its Relationship with the Work of Vilém Flusser, Arthur Koestler and Michael Polanyi
This essay explores the intellectual context of the “Active Archive” of Artpool, founded in Budapest in 1979, by György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay. Galántai’s thinking and creative approach are embodied in the system itself, which calls for an archival practice based on transfers of philosophical and personal knowledge. The archive puts the philosophical, insights of some influential thinkers into practice, among them Arthur Koestler, Vilém Flusser and Michael Polanyi. In archival research, one can gain a better self-awareness through the exploration of the social and cultural relations of the past. The contents available in the Artpool Archive, predetermine a particular way of seeing things by structuring them and at the same time they constantly offer freedom of choice, both necessary in our present day telematic society, deeply permeated by digital and artificial intelligence.