BKC Landart – Buddha Kesa Map, 2001

Watercolor and ink pencil on the reverse side of adhesive foil with paper backing – 453 × 800 mm

This work is a watercolor and colored pencil drawing on d-c-fix adhesive foil with paper backing, the grid on the reverse side of which the artist used as a structural element in composing the image. The artwork includes several inscriptions: “BKC” (a local rap slang term for Budakeszi), “buddhakesza” (a pun referring to the Buddhist “kesa,” the traditional robe worn by Zen monks), and the artist’s personal graffiti tag number, “22.”

The piece is an abstracted, reinterpreted map of Budakeszi, the artist’s hometown. Red tones mark inhabited areas, while green represents the forests encircling the settlement. The depiction of place transcends mere geography, evoking a metaphysical dimension: much like the surface of the Earth, which envelops, protects, and unites our sacred planet akin to the Buddhist robe, the kesa.

This work forms part of a complex land art project aimed at transforming Budakeszi into a multidisciplinary art site, engaging local communities in the active experience of art.

BKC Landart belongs to the artist’s Contemplative Cycle (1999–2010), which synthesizes abstraction and socio-cultural reflection in a meditative mode. The work is simultaneously cartographic and symbolic, reflecting the artist’s Buddhist-inspired bodhisattva perspective: for her, understanding and practicing art is equivalent to the spiritual path of zazen meditation.

Significantly, the choice of the d-c-fix adhesive foil’s paper backing – often considered waste or refuse – is intentional. In the spirit of arte povera, the use of everyday, low-prestige, recyclable materials forms the foundation of the piece, through which the artist undertakes a revaluation of material value and meaning. The grid on the foil’s reverse side serves as the compositional framework and structural basis for the image, while the material’s “recycled” nature reflects concerns with sustainability and critiques consumer culture.

The foil’s grid functions as a metaphor for systems, order, and control, which are disrupted by soft, organic shapes and colors, evoking a living, breathing landscape. The inscriptions, local slang, and spiritual wordplay – especially the “buddhakesza” referencing the Zen monks’ ritual robe – create an interplay that highlights tensions and dialogues between communal identity, language, and layered meanings.
In her role as a bodhisattva, the artist views the transformative power of art as a means of presence and awakening. Thus, this abstract cartographic representation can be read not only as a geographical but also a spiritual space. Its interdisciplinary approach and rootedness in site-specific community activism resonate with the overarching philosophy of the Contemplative Cycle, situated at the crossroads of Eastern and Western philosophies.