Dodir svetla

Godine 1993. Ilija Krković je prvi put napravio izložbu koja je cela bila nastala isključivo iz njegovog metafizičkog i ezoterijskog usmerenja i prikazivala unutrašnju radost tragaoca na putu istine, putu svetla. To su bile ogromne slike koje su izračivale svetlost. Tonovi plave, ružičaste i žute su bili misao, milost i svetlo, sliveni u jednu harmoniju, u jednu melodiju, koja nije pevala glavi, već srcu; nju nije bilo moguće intelektualno analizirati, formalistički secirati i, uopšte, potčiniti je bilo kom sistemu i bilo kakvom skupu opštepoznatih i opštepriznatih tvrdnji, procena i zaključaka, koje tako rado sakupljamo po fijokama naše pameti, da bi govorile umesto nas onda, kad naša sopstvena srca ostanu gluva i nema.

To je bio period najgoreg rata u Hrvatskoj, potpunih sankcija nad Jugoslavijom - Beograd, izobličen od mraka koji se lepio i razmazivao po svemu živom i neživom. Na mraku je nicao strah, vrežeći se tako brzo, kao ono šiblje što je okruživalo zamak Trnove Ružice. Lica, knjige, razgovori, slike, sve je postajalo muklo i tmasto, ulepljeno mrakom, podsticano neprestanim ubodima tog trnja straha, straha od gubljenja tla, straha od sveta paklenih snova koji se upravo stvarao i u kome još nismo umeli da funkcionišemo. U toj turobnoj bezbojnosti (a još je bila i kasna jesen), najednom su se pojavili Ilijini koloriti, svetli i zračni. Pozdravljajli su iz Knez Mihailove ulice sunce, svedočeći o autorovom radosnom prepoznavanju sopstvenog puta. Ono što je bilo filosofsko opredeljenje, postalo je izvor života. U situaciji koja je iznenada odsekla komunikaciju, dojučerašnje neophodnosti pretvorila u luksuz, nenormalno u svakodnevno, a teorijske istine u životne laži, dotadašnje Ilijino filozofsko nepoverenje u ovosvetske vrednosti pretvorilo se u živo spoznatu unutarnju istinu i svest o neminovnosti potrage za apsolutnim.

Kada su Junga pitali da li veruje u postojanje Boga, odgovorio je: "Ja ne verujem - ja znam da Bog postoji". Znanje o izvesnosti apsolutnog, metafizičko znanje, nije na ovaj ili onaj način potvrđena i usvojena činjenica, spakovana u odgovarajući moždani pregradak. To je spoznaja - ožiljak ili žig, koji bljesak istine ureže istovremeno u sve vidljive i nevidljive delove našeg bića. Metafizičko znanje se ne dokazuje i ne objašnjava; u njega se ne sumnja, jer nije ni logično - ono se jednostavno zna, ili se u njega ne može ni verovati. Jednom stečeno, ono postaje neotuđivi i najdragoceniji deo našeg bića, jer je to dragulj večnosti, delom zaslužen, a delom poklonjen i spušten u nas, da postane jedini deo našeg životnog sistema koji nema svoju suprotnost, koji se ne menja i ne propada, kao vodič i zaštita na putu do stapanja sa apsolutnim. Jednom osvešćena želja za stapanjem sa apsolutnim, rasplamsana spoznajom njegovog postojanja, postaje isključivi razlog bivanja i delovanja pa, prema tome, i umetničkog stvaranja.

Prema metafizičkoj ideologiji, rad je zaista umetnički jedino ako je nastao ne iz obične ovosvetske želje, već iz umetnikove čežnje za apsolutom, a umetničko delo ostaje kao dokaz umetnikove orfejske žudnje i spoznaje tog drugog sveta, da bude putokaz ostalima koji put traže. Na koji će se način i u kolikoj meri put i univerzalna istina očitovati u samom delu, zavisi od čistote umetnikovog stvaralačkog poriva, od stupnja njegovog duhovnog napretka i osvešćenosti, od njegovog obrazovanja i od kulture iz koje se izražava.

Ilijino metafizičko stvaralaštvo počelo je kao pozdrav svetlu, iskazan uljanom bojom i predstavama i sredstvima nastalim kombinovanjem zapadnjačkog likovnog obrazovanja i budističke i jogističke misli. Sa svakom novom izložbom, ono je zadržavalo stalno isto usmerenje, kao što je stalno isti i put po kome autor korača, ali su se teme i način izražavanja neprestano menjajli, kao što se neprestano menja mesto na kome se putnik nalazi.

Ispočetka nedefinisana žudnja za apsolutom, vrlo brzo je našla svoj izraz u ranohrišćanskoj misli i Ilija njenim jezikom govori i u svojoj poslednjoj izložbi. Ali njegova dela nikad nisu bila i nisu ilustracija filosofije - to su unutarnje spoznaje, urezi svetla, koji su dobili svoju likovnu formu. Crteži sa ove izložbe ništa ne opisuju i ne objašnjavaju. To su arhetipski oblici koji se kroz namernu smenu svetlog i tamnog obraćaju iskri božanskog čoveka u nama, ukoliko je još posedujemo, ukoliko je svojom nadmenošću, pohlepama, zavistima i neverama još nismo zgasnuli i pretvorili u ugalj.

Umetnik koji govori o sebi prirodno bira izraz koji ga pokazuje, on ističe svoj potez, karakter itd. Umetnik koji prikazuje poruke drugog sveta, isto tako prirodno, sebe apstrahuje, jer njegovo stvaralaštvo nije o njemu; on je samo prenosnik, koji sve svoje sposobnosti i znanje stavlja u funkciju te uloge. Da bi u potpunosti apstrahovao sebe od svog dela, Iv Klajn je pronalazio hiljade načina da se distancira od platna, pretvarajući ponekad čin stvaranja u nešto što je, sa strane gledano, izgledalo suludo; londonski Pakistanac, Aniš Kapur, iz istih razloga svoje skulpture zasipa gomilama praškastog pigmenta koji pokriva i čini nevidljivim sve autorove intervencije, čineći čak da predmeti gube jasan obris i definisan oblik i pritom zaista često deluju kao hologrami poslati iz drugog sveta; Ilija Krković crteže pravi raspršujući boju iznad papira preko šablona od novina i kartona - od kapljica tuša slučajnih veličina, palih sa velike visine, oblici trepere, deluju krhko i čini se kao da su se mrljice svetla i tame same rasporedile u kompoziciju savršene ali osetljive harmonije, koju bi mogla da poremeti čak i preglasna misao ili nečist pogled.

Delo koje ne živi nezavisno od svog autora i koje ga prikazuje, ne može biti svetionik Univerzalne Istine, već je prikaz ovog sveta i to neobjektivan, dakle, laž. Jer je po definiciji nemoguće objektivno sagledati i prikazati ono što je deo nas ili čega smo mi deo, pošto je nemoguće uspostaviti neophodnu distancu. Zato osnovni zahtevi koje Ilija u svom stvaranju sebi zadaje glase: poštuj harmoniju, utišaj sebe, ne prenosi sebe u delo. Onoliko, koliko je to čoveku moguće.

Milica Krković


Touch of Light

Ilija Krkovic revealed his metaphysic and esoteric directions presenting the inside joy of a seeker for the truth, a seeker for the light through one of his exhibitions for the first time in 1993 in Belgrade. The exhibition consisted of large pictures radiating light. Blue, yellow and pink were thoughts, grace and light, merged into a harmony, into one melody, singing not to our heads, but to our harts; these works could not be intellectually analyzed, scholarly dissected or generally subjugated to any system or group of common assertions, estimates and conclusions that we gather so gladly to keep them in the drawers of our mind, in order to speak instead of us when our own harts remain deaf and dumb.

It was the time of the war in Croatia. Yugoslavia was under a total embargo and Belgrade was contorted of the darkness that was sticking and spreading all over. The fear grew from that darkness, sprouting so quickly, like the torn around the castle of Sleeping Beauty. Faces, books, conversations, everything became muddled and shady, glued together with darkness, pinched by the torn of fear – a fear of loosing former positions, a fear of the world of hellish dreams that was coming through, in which we didn't know how to function yet. In this colorless world (and it was the late autumn, too) suddenly appeared Ilija's colorings, light and radiating, greeting the Sun from Knez Mihailova Street, bearing witness to author's joyful recognition of his own path. What had once been a philosophical choice, now became a source of life. In a situation when all the communications were cut off, when former necessities were turned into luxury and abnormalities into everyday events, when common theoretical truths became living lies, in that situation Ilija's former lack of trust in material values turned into a lively inner cognition and into a conscience of the necessity of searching for Absolute.

When asked if he believed in God, Karl G. Jung answered: «I don't believe – I know God exists!» Knowledge about the certainty of Absolute, the metaphysical knowledge, is not a fact somehow confirmed and accepted and packed in a suitable compartment of the brain; no, it's an insight – a scar or a stigmata, cut in one moment by the flash of Truth in all visible and invisible parts of our being. Metaphysical knowledge is not to be explained or proved; one cannot doubt about it, too, because it's not even logical – it's something one simply knows, or he's not a believer at all. Once achieved, it becomes an inalienable part of our being, the most precious one, because it's a precious stone of Eternity, partly merited, partly gifted and brought down into the being, to become the only part of our living system without it's opposition; it cannot be changed, it cannot be ruined, it's a guide and a protection on the path of the union with Absolute. Once brought into consciousness, a longing for the union with Absolute, inflamed by an inner insight, becomes the exclusive reason for being and acting and therefore the only cause of artistic creation.

According to metaphysical ideology, a work is really artistic only if it arises not from the common wishes of this world, but from the artist's yearning for Absolute. Products of that work remain as proves of artist's   Orphic urge, to lead all those who are looking for the path and who have eyes to see. In which way and in what amount will the Universal Truth manifest itself in such a work depends on the purity of artist's motifs, on the level of his spiritual progress and consciousness, on his education and on the culture from which he comes.

Ilija's metaphysical creativity began as a greeting to Light in oil, with ideas and by means which appeared from a combination of the western artistic education, Buddhism and Yoga. All his exhibitions that were to come afterwards had the same direction and the same aim because the author's path remained the same; but, topics and ways of expression constantly changed, just as the spot on which a traveler is standing changes all the time.

His longing for Absolute, very undefined in the beginning, soon found it's place in early Christian thought. That's the language Ilija uses in his last exhibition, too. But, his works have never been mere illustrations of a philosophy; no, they are inner insights, flashes of Light presented in an artistic form. Drawings from this exhibition don't describe and don't explain. These are archetypes which, through intentional changes of light and dark, address to the sparkle of the spectator's Divine Being – that is, if he still possesses it, if he hasn't already extinguished it and turned it into a piece of coal due to human arrogance end greed end envy and a lack of faith.

An artist who talks about himself spontaneously chooses a way of expression that shows him, and his strokes, his character, etc. An artist whose aim is to show messages from another world spontaneously abstracts himself from his work, because that work is not about him at all – he is only a carrier, a broadcaster, who gives all his abilities and knowledge for this aim. In order to abstract himself from his work, Yves Klein used to find out thousands of ways how to make a distance between himself and his canvas, turning sometimes the act of creation into something that seemed odd; Anish Kapoor, the Indian artist living and working in London, covers his sculptures with piles of powdered pigment, hiding in that way all interventions of his hand, making the objects loose their sharp shape and transforming them into the holograms from another world. Ilija Krkovic makes his drawings by blowing the color over the models made of paper and cardboard; drops of ink of random dimensions, felt from above, make the shapes flickering - it looks like if the small stains of light and darkness have arranged themselves on the paper by their one wish, creating fragile shapes, creating a composition of a perfect but tender harmony which might be disturbed even by a loud word or by an unclean look.

If an artistic work, when finished, cannot live independent from his author, than it will not be able to serve as a lighthouse of the Universal Truth; no, it will be a review of this world, and not the objective one. Because one can't really see neither something he belongs to, nor a part of him. An objective review cannot be made, because a necessary distance cannot be made, too. According to metaphysical ideology, in the light of The Universal Truth, every such attempt is a lie. Therefore, the basic demands Ilija follows in his work are: respect the harmony, don't transfer yourself into your work, be quiet. As much as possible.

Milica Krkovic