Velekei József Lajos: A MINDENSÉG ÖLÉBEN (Kiállítási katalógusok - Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2007)

VOTUM PROFANUM Exhibition of Lajos József Velekei "The eternal succession - every form is merely one of its stations: this is the existence." (Sándor Weöres) Speaking of the exhibition of Lajos József Velekei and of his entire creative activity, we may use the expression of 'total art', since he creates different kinds of art: sculptures, paintings and drawings as well. Furthermore, he installs them in the exhibition room according to a certain concept. But we should not think that 'total art' is a modern idea. The wording is well an invention of the 20

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h century, but it refers to the oldest concept of art. Since art means originally a unity, it was one and indivisible. In ancient times, when the conscious artistic approach - as we interpret arts in modern times - did not exist yet, those pictures and objects, which we assign subsequently to the sphere of art concept, belonged to the category of magic. The activity, which we call "art" today is magic, and the master of magic was the shaman. József Velekei's works of art may be related to this interpretation of arts, independently of art forms; the same applies for his sculptures, paintings and drawings. The expression used in the title 'votum profanum' (profane supplication) refers to the most basic characteristic of József Velekei's art: to the fact that he creates sacral or more exactly, magic works of art by using the most archaic and natural means, free of all mannerism and stiltedness. The title of his sculpture Magic confirms this. The sculpture is about transformation, metamorphosis. It is about the path leading to the fulfilment of man's desire to fly. At the same time the title of this write-up refers not only to Velekei, it reminds of Bartók's composition Cantata Profana too. It recalls the spirit of Bartók and the story of the boys turned into dears. The story of the Cantata Profana is not the only reference for the motive of 'turning into dear'. For Velekei it refers also to the tragic story of the young hunter in the Greek mythology, Actaion. Accidentally, Actaion had a glimpse at the goddess Artemis when she was bathing naked at the source Parthenios. (Following a different version, he boasted to be a better hunter than the goddess.) As a punishment, the goddess turned him into a dear and his own dogs tore him into pieces. After that the dogs went to Kheiron and looked for their master. The centaur painted the image of their master to comfort them. The most beautiful literary description of the tragic hunt is in the Metamorphoses by Ovid. The ancient story is the allegoric representation of art: when comforting the dogs with the picture of their master, the centaur actually used the magic of art. For Velekei the process of 'turning into dear' is a synonym for the process of artistic creation. He often uses wedge-like motives in his works, which may refer to antlers. They cut into the surface of the painting or sculpture and suggest a rhythm, the rhythmic sound of drum. The antler-like elements don't blow up the composition; they rather string them on a strict structure. They are stronger sounding, pulsating parts of musical tunes. No wonder, because Velekei applies a kind of synergy: with his visual works he produces an effect on another organ, on the organ of hearing and so he builds a bridge between visual art and music. József Velekei is an excellent wood sculptor; the central part of the present exhibition features also a series of sculptures. On the basis of organic material he creates abstract works but the finished work of art contains the livelihood, the natural form, the substance of the wood. At the same time he is taking distance from the origin of the row material through the depicted object, even if this object happens to be a tree - like the World tree set up in Gödöllő. This is an anthropomorphic work: the tree is a double spiral - two persons, a man and a woman hugging each other? A headless figure? A winged creature? For Velekei one of the important characteristics of the tree is its suitability to represent humans because for him the construction of both the tree and the human body is identical. Velekei aims with the stylization in his works at the optimal visualisation of the essence. He creates associative symbols for this purpose only. The motive of the World tree is a returning motive of his oeuvre. The World tree is a Taoist symbol, since the Path or the ladder reaching up to the sky is a medium between heavenly and earthly things (his wing-like motive confirms this interpretation). It may be identified with the mission of the Art, with the art itself, or may be interpreted as his confession about art. In this sense the wood as material is such a medium, which mediates symbolically and concretely: the artist expresses himself through it and the idea finds shape in it. The wood is at the same time the materialisation of the organic and of the abstract, and of the material and of the thought (immaterial). The wood leads the artist's hand through its network, lines and natural shapes, at the same time, it gives him freedom. Velekei carves all his sculptures from one block and he never paints their surface. The wood with natural colour refers to the Sacred Groves, to the tree-alphabet where every kind of tree corresponds to a certain letter. His way of carving reminds of the handling of brush by Van Gogh and Cézanne. Once more it is evident that Velekei does not know the borderline between artistic forms. Key-words of Velekei's art and also of the present exhibition are the silence and the secret. This refers to the meditative silence during the process of artistic creation. On the other hand, it means the silence of spiritual spaces and places created by the finished works, the silence experienced by the receptive spectator. The secret is linked to the silence also by remaining silent, and the path leading to unravel the final secret may be a symbol for the creative process. 4