INTRODUCTION TO OPUS ALCHYMICUM BY MIRO HAJNC

The Koroškan painter Miro Hajnc from Radlje ob Dravi developed the concept of the current exhibition on the basis of his long study of the existential and psychological problems of different religious systems and philosophical schools, with an emphasis on Buddhism and Tibetan mysticism, here synthesised in the form of a painterly/alchemic magnum opus with intimate emphases in the form of dreamlike or fantastic symbols. The main iconographic and symbolic starting point of Hajnc's exhibition is based on Jung's interpretations of the symbolism of dreams on the one hand, and on the connection between alchemy and psychology on the other, while the inexhaustible source of analogies was found in Heinrich Füssli's fine art work. The real treasure of information on iconography and symbolism in the alchemic tradition was certainly also the fine art and poetry of William Blake. Dreams and reality, unconsciousness and consciousness represent the psychological and philosophical fields that regularly intertwine in Hajnc's fine art work.
The complex arrangement, based on a unique concept in the multifarious but nevertheless uniform space of the new wing of Slovenj Gradec Art Gallery, shows the features of a drawing/painting installation, which can be fully experienced only in an interactive stroll through the exhibition space, with the imaginary recognition of all phases of initiation or alchemic transmutation.
The path of initiation through the gallery is marked by a triangular ground plan in which the earth is the basis (4), followed by water (3), air (2) and fire (1). The four elements arranged in a triangle according to the value of numbers represent a tetragon whose geometric symbol is the square. Symbolism of the four elements is related to the Pythagorean symbolism of universal knowledge in the sense of the arithmetic sum of the first four numbers (1+2+3+4), which gives a total of 10, i.e. a decade, the symbol of totality and divinity.

The visitor, who simultaneously acts as an initiate or neophyte (neophytus: a novice, a newly converted person), first enters the sphere of chaos, presented by the intermixed artistic photographs of the four elements. The ritual of initiation begins with the passage through the installed wooden door; the neophyte then walks through the triangle, from the basis/earth, via water and air, to fire, which leads to the sun and its rays (sun: gold/aurum, or lapis philosophicum, the alchemic philosopher's stone). While the four elements are depicted in drawing in almost mural-like paper formats, the sun and its rays are made using the technique of collage, with acrylic paints on canvas, and they give an impression of mosaic. Throughout his journey the neophyte is accompanied by drawings of eyes without faces, with the sole exception of the two halves of a face in the passage from the sphere of earth to the sphere of water, which represents Hajnc's self-portrait, as if in the sense of "Walk through my brain!". The complex process of initiation with the ultimate aim of transmutation thus symbolically develops both in the artist's brain and certainly in his soul, and the visitors are also invited to participate. The process also continues in the opposite direction, when returning to the start of the exhibition, to the singularity of chaos, which also means the new beginning of the universe and, with it, life. There is the peculiar effect of the colour contrast between the introductory part of the installation with its polychromatic photographs representing chaos, the central part with its non-chromatic, grey graphite drawings on white-yellowish paper surfaces representing initiation (eyes and the four elements), which function symbolically ascetically, and the final sun/divine part with monochromatic golden-yellow hues.