I. CREATIVE PERIOD 1968-70.

The immediate precursor of the creative colony – and the sculpture park – was the First European Sculpture Symposium artist colony in Sankt Margarethen, Austria. Sándor Rétfalvi, a sculptor from Pécs who had just graduated from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, worked there on a scholarship in 1964.

It is easy to imagine what an unexpected and unsettling new experience it must have been for Rétfalvi, having just completed his strictly one-dimensional stylistic, conceptual, and practical training, to suddenly encounter and confront something completely different, something he had never seen before! Even a renowned artist such as Henry Moore had previously been almost completely incomprehensible and alien to him. The two months of working together with young contemporaries from many different backgrounds, who thought and worked in many different ways, fundamentally changed his practical and stylistic relationship with sculpture.

László Bükkösdi summarized the adventurous story of the foundation in his memoir published in the Dunántúli Napló in 2001…

According to this, Sándor Rétfalvi received his first official commission in 1967: he was asked to create a relief of the 1919 communist Imre Kréth for Siklós. The memorial plaque was made in Budapest. …

In order to speed up the process, Ferenc Zsifkó, deputy chairman of the district council, Péter Perics, head of the cultural department, and the young sculptor set off for Budapest with a demijohn of Siklós wine to negotiate with the State Bronze Casting Company. They handed over one demijohn of wine at the foundry, discussed the work to be done, and then went to see Ferenc Örsi, the writer of Tenkes kapitánya (Captain of Tenkes). While drinking wine, the host learned that the young man was a sculptor and immediately asked why they did not create a “kind of artists’ colony” in the quarry. Rétfalvi recounted his experiences in Austria, pointing out how necessary such a creative opportunity would be for young artists. Ferenc Zsifkó jumped at the idea, not only because it was suggested by Ferenc Örsi, but also because he saw the potential for artistic activity to further enhance the reputation of the Siklós region following the success of the captain of Tenkes. By the time they finished the last demijohn in the car on the way home, they had agreed in detail with Rétfalvi on the concept.