During August 26 and 27 in 1972, the Czech-Slovak-Hungarian artists' meeting organized by László Beke took place in György Galántai's chapel studio at Balatonboglár. This event was intended by Beke as a kind of artistic work, a conceptual action, which at the same time attempted to respond to specific political issues in the form of a "grassroot" initiative. During the meeting three events took place. Firstly, the participants tried to create a list of words that can be found in all of the three languages with the same meaning. Secondly, they performed a tug of war action, where the rope had been replaced by a certain magazine photo. In the picture, the united troops pass the time with rope pulling after the Czechoslovakian "invasion" of 1968. The use of the photo is also a gesture, which may be a response to the hostile emotions generated by the role of the Hungarians troops – being from a neighbouring country – during the Czechoslovakian invasion. The third episode of the meeting was the so called handshaking action: the 13 Hungarian and the 11 Czecho-Slovakian artists all shook hands, which had been documented in the form of a tableau of photos. Every participant received a copy of the tableau. The symbolic of the handshake is not accidental in this context. It implies that the conflicts between countries are often generated and kept up by politicians, but people can resist these hysterical fusses and on an individual level, they can approach one another without prejudices.
