My deep connection to nature not only sets the tone for my life, but has also become a major source of inspiration for my sculptural work. The experience of nature, the experience of cyclical coexistence with it, has created the possibility of a sense of transcendence, and through my art it has become a content to be expressed. In my sculpture, therefore, I strive to capture the hidden reality, the essence that lies beneath the surface. The aim of my art is to give back the transcendent Absolute manifested in Nature (Physis) in a form that helps us to approach our Self.
Since 2007, after moving to the countryside, the relationship with nature became the focus of my work, and gradually my interest has shifted towards the phenomena and traditions of rural life. This significant moment transformed my way of thinking and my approach to sculpture. The noisy world of industrial infrastructure was replaced by a quiet, introspective creative process. The use of natural materials, especially different types of wood, traditional tools and woodworking techniques opened up new horizons in the possibilities of contemporary sculpture.
The use of traditional materials and handicraft techniques, the representation of everyday events and significant memories of rural life, and the reinterpretation of peasant object culture in modern Hungarian sculpture through its incorporation into contemporary art are all connected to the art of Géza Samu. This specific creative method, based on personal experiences, was very prominent in his work as an object creator and produced relevant results. During my creative period from 2007 to 2017, I was able to identify with Géza Samu’s artistic conception and plastic thinking to a considerable extent, and I experienced his approach and artistic attitude through myself. This exhibition is partly a tribute to Géza Samu, or more precisely to his way of being, his sculptural activity close to nature.
Hommage á S. G. Samu Gesu’s work, which will take place in the Parthenon-Frieze Hall in Eberskert and in the Calvary, is a tribute to the work of S. G. Samu Gesu. I have selected works from this period, which are based on the themes of the research areas of the Application of Traditional Techniques in Contemporary Sculpture and Nature-Human Art, in line with my doctoral thesis, and which form a coherent whole, placing these sculptures in their own context.
In addition to creating new sculptures closely related to the nature of these works, I am in fact reinterpreting the earlier sculptures; I am partly complementing them, placing them in an installation situation, and – as they have never been exhibited in this form or together before – by presenting them together I am also revealing new connections between the plastic expression of transcendence in nature; moreover, through the connection and identity of the materials and techniques used, I am organising the works made over the past 10 years into a coherent whole.
As a result, I hope that the objects, when received, will be assembled into a complex reading, through the threads that connect them on several levels, in such a way that they will be continuously led back to each other, moving from one to the next, through the interweaving of different solutions and layers of content. In addition to common content, these include light, solar discs, landscape, liquids (water and oil), horizontal and vertical axes, different woods, peasant craft techniques, wooden pots, wheat, straw, sounds and noises, etc.
Peter Menasági