Benedek József (Budapest, 2002)
Reflections On My Works Usually there are two constituents which are being specified in a work of art: the spiritual one with its roots and ramifications leading us towards the universe of mystery, and the material one which leads us towards the principles of the material world. As a matter of fact, the sphere of activity of the sculptor may be found in between these two territories. It is motivated by spiritual energies and feelings in one hand, on the other it manifests in activities relevant to the principles of the material world. Thus one may specify the constituents of he work of art in the following items: spirit - energy- principle - matter, or with other words, the spirit manifests itself in matter through different energies also based on some principles relevant to the material world and as a result of the creative activity of the sculptor it becomes perceivable and tangible in our concrete physical world. Besides, the word itself plastic also suggest that we mean under it: material produced with feeling. Most of the everyday preoccupations of the artist in terms of time consuming consists in an effort of finding a correspondence between these two constituents, and making it perceivable. Throughout this process the large-scale knowledge, the intensive, regular work and the consciously crafted programme coupled with talent and inspiration altogether contribute to the realization of a specific productive ground for creative activity. In addition to these attributes there are certain moments when well expected or undreamt-of images do occur, a "curtain rises" a "wall opens up", when we see things unseen before. All these moments are lacking from the everyday life because they are bound to unusual conditions, they can be free even from our will, they are non-reoccurring, not preplanned, and not subject for analysis, impossible to follow and practically they are non-existent. (Due to their non-institutional character they are omitted from cultural policies and programmes as well.) These relatively rare moments constitute new sources of inspiration for the creative activity occasionally contributing to the setting up of long-term "programmes". It's worth reaching this point and follow this line since presumably this is the point where that something is hidden which constitutes the driving force and the real essence of the creative activity. We perceive the surrounding things in our world in the context of the relationship between time and space. That part which belongs to the sphere of space is being constituted by the spatial (physical) attributes of the Earth itself with its horizontal plane and the vertical plane perpendicular to it and of those points which can be found along the intersection of these lines. Then here, the different forms of existence produce an extremely varied configuration of spatial manifestations. We find in different epochs of art many examples and a rich variety of references to those concrete and symbolic meanings which are resulted from the relationship between these two planes. Given to the nature of the sculptural activity one can perceive an intent which is bound to the specific dimensions of time and space, to their division and to the infinite of the finite, to the sphere of the instant moment and that of the immemorial which are best illustrated with the following expressions: to make it long lasting, to preserve. It's worth mentioning two extremes in this relation. One of them relates to the ab ovo omission of the kinetic forms which are bound to specific, transitory and "ephemeral" time, and spatial manifestations, placing things in planes which are perpendicular to each other, and which - given to the attributes of our existenceare associated with the concepts of timelessness, eternity and infinity. Such examples are the figures of sphinx from Egypt or - to give an other example from the last century - the paintings of Mondrian. The other extreme is exactly the preservation of those things which are bound to specific ephemeral moments (for instance the baroque sculptures). There is another tendency which alters from the previous one and it can be perceived as the manifestation of the unity of time and space while it is following exactly the line which is relevant to this unity. We may find examples to these manifestations in the sculptures belonging to different epochs, especially from the beginning of the last century. One cannot find here only those sculptural (kinetic) manifestations which are being placed in real time but also perhaps first of all those ones which are aiming at representing the reality that manifests in the unity of time and space and are offering a possibility for their interpretation. The present material of this publication belongs to this latter trend. Every existing thing - the sculptural activity, too - is a result of a process of time and space. These processes can be conceived as time-space graphs which come into being as a result of a process within certain energies of various nature that permeate and connect the given constituent elements of the things, their parts and junctures by following certain order. The point of reference of the time - space processes is the MOMENT which is constantly moving away and it has a premoment, an invariant part (from which we perceive and record a certain space and time-frame like memory, civilization, history etc) namely the sphere of chronicle. It does have a post-moment part, a changing one, theoretically containing infinite alternatives and which is the sphere of existence. The precondition of the existence of the given thing is the constant step into the future. Everything which can be considered the driving force and the initiator of the sculptural manifestations can be connected to this point of reference, to this moment which - speaking in general terms - can mean the real motivation and the sense of the creative activity. This can be expressed in the intention and ability of the dislocation of the moment and can be best illustrated with the help of the word DISPLAY ( bringing something into our presence which is not present). We perceive the existing time-space processes within the boundaries of our time-space scale. The time-space dimensions are determined by the principles of our material world. A part of the constituents of the artistic works point beyond the boundaries of our scale, and they are perceivable, yet they cannot be conceived. These are the boundaries, the "walls" of our time-space scale experiences (it cannot be excluded that these are exactly those ones which are securing the undisturbed character of our life, the coherence of our world perceivable with our spacetime scale). The knowledge gained through different branches of science is constantly pushing farther away this wall but when we mention about the spirit and its driving force, the soul which are participating in the creative activity, as a matter of fact we do not know what are we talking about (besides what is being realized in the works of art). This component refers to those manifestations which are beyond the perceivable - presumably stemming from its very nature - and to which science could not give any points of reference for the time being. We are can only rely on our fantasy while estimating what are the time-space dimensions of this matter, what are its manifestations, whether they are constant or changing, to what kind of materials and time-space processes do they relate to ? It could be also possible that the "time-space vibrations" bring about a high degree of oscillation stemming from the very nature of the joint presence of time-space components of the matter. Or according to the other hypothesis several time-space graphs may have junctures which by interacting with many other time-space graphs that belong to our consciousness are finally producing transcendental experiences. Following this line of the fantasy when the "moment" shifts towards the sphere of the chronicle we create ourselves an image about one of the many alternatives of a never experienced past (we have a glance into non-existing cultures, civilizations, historical events). When the "moment" shifts towards the sphere of existence, towards the future then we have a glance into the alternatives which will take place in the future. However, this is only fantasy and not a scientific explana-