Although nowadays the chalk circle is referred to in connection with family affairs following a divorce, in literature it is an example of the failure of justice rather than that of separation. We considered "Floor Parables 2 - studies for the Chalk Circle" as a model for the most essential type of conflict due to the changing of the political regime and later we were delighted to find "Polish Chalk Circle", an article by Adam Michnik, where the same allegory was used to describe the situation following the change of the political regime (this piece was originally published in Gazeta Wyborcza, December 31, 1993, the Hungarian translation came out in the March issue of Mozgó Világ). The reason why we had the same idea six months before that was that we wanted our work to function as a criticism of the changing of the political regime (child = future), although by no means dependent on the frame of reference of hot-tempered day-to day policy making. The starting point of our scheme was that the circle can only be drawn one way to act out the story according to the narratives. All deviations - such as changing the size of the circle, drawing a larger or a smaller circle or several circles - or transferring the circle into a different spatial arrangement - I. e., on steps, around a column, in a corner, or walls - opens new alternatives for the interpretation of the parable (from Szondy's Schicksalwiederholung to well-known figures of speech like drive someone into a corner or drive someone up the wall).

The main lounge and the second floor of the Markó Street building of the Municipal Central District Court of Budapest was chosen as the location of the project. We had several grounds for this choice; firstly "the Markó" is the symbol of jurisdiction and the passing of a sentence. Secondly, the building, designed by Ferenc Jablonszky, built in 1915, has a kafkaesque atmosphere with its internal spaces of various size and structure (waiting rooms, steps, corridors) offering excellent opportunities to work out our ideas. To our utmost regret, in the last moment the board withdrew its expected support to realize the project at a court of law, as in their judgement that would have been disrespectful to the court.

At last on November 30, 1993, on the last day of POLYPHONY we were able to realize
a part of our idea at the initiative of the Department of Education and the Department of Visual Education of the Budapest Teacher Training College with the support of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts in the building of the Budapest teacher Training College.

Ágnes Eperjesi - Tibor Várnagy