MATERIAL, MATTER, SOURCE by Nika Pavlinek
Opus magnum is the most crucial work of an alchemist, and the same term applies to the most important work of an artist. Opus summum is the mature work embodying all of the author’s extensive experience and skill. In alchemy and philosophy, prima materia is the source material needed for an alchemist’s opus. It is the pure, primitive, formless base of all substances, comparable to the heaven and earth, body and spirit, containing all colours and all metals. It fertilises and gives birth to itself and transforms all imperfect things it touches. First matter remains forever, for there is no space it does not fill. Not all artists or alchemists among them strive for its unachievable transmutations. Not afraid to dive into the raw matter, some attach to it form and significance by way of deep memory. They proceed without a clear goal, guided by the origin and structure of the medium at hand. Trusting their sense of touch, they allow external perceptions and internal feelings to intermingle. The matter is permitted to shape itself, to give birth to itself.
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Glina iz Parka Maksimir, Zagreb
Lidia Boševski travels around locations all over the country, but she knows the country through the earth, the soil, as the matter. To her, earth is the original substance. More often than not, all the places mentioned here have found her, rather than being found by her. Without hiding, she sneaked through clay pits, quarries, building sites, along paths, roads, across the sea and rivers, from the island Lastovo to the north shores of the Adriatic, then around central Croatia, Lika, Moslavačka gora, and on to Slavonia and Baranja. Her work embraces and translates for us what is happening in other cultures because she abstracts them, not from above but from below, from and through the earth. Dipping her hands in every bit of soft ground that she finds on her explorations, she goes on to create works that combine the surrounding influences and intimate experiences. Searching for yet another handful of some wild and unfamiliar substance, she uses her small trowel to deposit her precious finds in a canvas bag that she always carries, all in an effort to expand the building of her opus summum.
Clay from Maksimir Park, Zagreb
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