'OPERA APERTA' series

A new series begins ... The concept draws from Umberto Eco's Opera Aperta (1962) — the Open Work. Writing primarily about music and literature, Eco defined the work of art as 'an object endowed with structural properties that render possible a number of successive interpretations, a series of evolving perspectives, but that also enable us to coordinate such a series.'

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While Eco's examples spanned composers and writers, the principle translates naturally — perhaps even more so, to three-dimensional form. A reader follows a text word by word, a viewer of a ceramic vessel moves around it, holds it, encounters it from any angle and in any light. The interpretive freedom is greater still.

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With this new body of work, Ildiko wanted to explore the idea that what an art form means to the artist can mean something entirely different to its viewer — and that this is something wonderful. 'Just because an artist structures their work in a particular way, following their own roots, history, memories and emotions, does not fix its meaning. We are all individuals, and as such we each bring our own distinct qualities to what we see.' The 'Opera Aperta' takes on a new perspective every time it is encountered by a different person.