Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 9-10. (1975-1976) (Szombathely, 1980)
Művészettörténet - Beke László: Kísérleti textil
plied, etc. The textile environment —hung from the cieling, on the wall, on the floor, or in the open air —is independently forming the space around itself and allows combinations or confrontations with other materials, too. TIME. Time and space are physically inseparable determinants of our surrounding. According to the traditional conception textile art has no "temporal" dimension —still we cannot disregard this aspect. The first consideration at this point is that textile is not "durable" like stone, bronze or other "durable" materials. This prejudice is, however, nothing but fiction: there are textile findings from several centuries back on the one hand, and the notion of textile has been enriched with inorganic matters on the other hand,~so there wouldn't be but some technical difficulties (easy to overcome) of setting up a "textile monument". The subject of some experimental textiles is exactly the process of perishing of the textile, put to wheather or some other exteriour influence. Time-taking technics (e.g. gobelin) are often appreciated according to „how much work is invested" into them —one of the purposes of experimental textile, on the other hand, might be to illustrate the process of being made, or the "traces of time" in the work of art. Processes can be possible in textile just as well as really temporal, mobile textile sculptures, on the analogy of process art and kinetic art. TRADITION. If an old piece of tissue turns up in a precent-day textile-collage, two "times" are juxtaposed in the work of art. This is the problem of historic time. This problem is one of the most sharpened to the experimenting artist : is it possible to make old works of art in the second half of the 20th century? The answer is unambiguous: the conflict of the historic "quatation" with its environment emphasizes the doubtful issue of this attempt at bringing it to a new life. The conservation and preservation of folk art, craftsmanship, art nouveau, and the traditions in general is the task of the museums and none of experimental textile. The theoretical generalization of the traditions may have led to important recognitions in certain periods: sometimes it could even prove to be progressive and could serve as a base for accepting innovations ; but the conventions, incapable to perform any bit of a change, has turned it, the more and more, into its own ideology. The really innovating artist however is aware of tradition's being uneliminable, and so he finds it unnecessary to refer to it —he is making a good use of the tradition if it escapes notice in his works. PRESENT STATE OFAAFFAIRS AND FORECAST. The environment in which and for which textile is made is human and social in the widest sense of these words. It follows from the special, and not at all satisfactory social position of the 20th century artist, that the experimental textile has got to be contented with a very narrow section of this environment —the exhibition hall —and had to start its expansion with a relatively modest programme. It appeared as spatial textile at first, then as "material-textile" and "technics-textile" —since it concentrated on itself instead of illustrating some other meaning, raising pleasant atmosphere or decorating purposeless spaces. But the programme was meant for the whole social environment. The self-examination of the textile art requires a more profound and more analytical way of perception from the spectator : a mainly intellectual approach and a critical attitude instead of, or beside "delight", since experimental textile often appears as a merely ironical gesture or even "anti-textile" when confronted to the whole of textile art. Furthermore, this attitude is not directed only toward textile art, but also to any sort of textile, being of any effect in all the spheres of society. The ultimate purpose of the expansion of experimental textile is the "total textile"; that changed attitude, that might become the common achievement of the textile engineer and of the housewife who will buy bed-clothes. 328
