High-Concept Art, With a Breath of Fresh Air - Literally

It's no secret that one of the worst things about contemporary art, aside from some of the art, is the people you see at the exhibitions. So I'm happy to say that for my first column promoting art you can enjoy in and around Budapest, I'm taking you not to a gallery or museum, but to the wilds of Dobogókő in the Duna Ipoly National Park. It is there, in a dark and quiet forest gully, that Hungarian-French artist Sabine Fazekas has created an installation piece in the form of a labyrinth composed solely of fallen branches to spiral the visitor towards a white-painted center. It is refreshing not just because of the lack of black turtlenecks and second-hand smoke, but also because the concept succeeds on several fronts.

The piece, which was installed with the blessing of the park and with support from the French Institute and The International Society for Shamanistic Research, is titled "From the Third Eye View," (A harmadik szempontból). To get there, you first head to the nearby Platán Panzió, walk a hundred or so meters down the road in the downhill direction, cut a left into the woods at the first clearing...

...and continue until you see this:

The inward twisting labyrinth embodies the spiritual journey inward to activate one's third eye (in the middle pic below), a frequent element of Eastern Mysticism. To reach the swirl's vortex, one must scrape through a narrow opening guarded by jabbing twigs. Inside, however, one has reached the enlightenment of the whitewashed nirvana and a single tree. Fazekas briefly explained it to me by saying, "I was walking in the forest and I could see Third Eyes everywhere. I was also attracted to the idea of a natural amphitheatre."

The setting does, in fact, lend itself to ceremony and the work was inaugurated a few weeks ago by 80 Shamans attending a conference in Dobogókő. The site is ideal for such a work because it draws upon the enormous spiritual resonance of the location. Dobogókő, meaning "beating stone," was once home to large Bronze Age settlements, and is now home to, for example, Shaolin Village. Fazekas also told me that the Dali Lama drops by when he's in Hungary. Meanwhile, the always entertaining former Budapest Public Administration Chief and champion right-wing nutcase László Grespik has gone on record saying that Dobogókő is the "center of the Universe," and that Pilis (the mountain range) is actually a corruption of "Polus," as in Pole.

It's not surprising so much spirituality can be found in this forest, as the landscape is curiously dramatic. Which is why it's ideal for the best of all Sylvanian forest legends: Robin Hood. So to complete your excursion, consider trespassing on the BBC's local set for their hit series about the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest.

Forests, since the days of domesticated agriculture, became the refuge of the other, the outsider, the outlaw and alternate believer. Under the early Christian Hungarian feudal state, it remained a hotbed of paganism, and later a refuge from the Mongols. But hiding out in the woods need not be unpleasant, at least not in Sherwood of the 12th century. Apparently the film industry got so accustomed to their RV lifestyles on set, they assumed Robin Hood had one, too. His fort came equipped with a stove and toilet. (The photoshopped RH figurine is there to protect the person standing behind him from any charges of trespassing, even though the whole set sits in a national park.)

Strictly-speaking, it's not art - at least not until some heavily-credentialed art critic says so - but it's still worth checking out. As is the Platán, where you can complete your day of artsy shamanism with a big, mixed-grill plate without fear of running into big-city, art-world poseurs, at least other than the ones you bring with you.

Longtime Budapest resident Jeff Taylor is the head partner of Taylor Art Advisors, specializing in servicing dealers and collectors of Central European Modernism, Biedermeier, and Secessionism. He also serves as Interdean's Fine Art Transport Specialist.