Architect László Rajk had been working as a visual designer for Mafilm since the early eighties. Letatlajk was created as a visual design element in 1987 for György Dobray’s film Szerelem második vérig (Love until second blood), and in 1990 it was presented as a sculpture at NA-NE Gallery. In 2000, it was presented in the Project, Utopia, Construction section at the exhibition at Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris (L’autre Moitié de l’Europe). On returning, some elements of the work were destroyed. The work was reconstructed by the artist in 2018. The title of the work refers to Tatlin’s constructivist flying machine Letatlin, completed in 1932. The title of Rajk’s work was coined from the name of the artist and from the Russian word “letat” (to fly). The spiral element in the “stern” of the object evokes one of Tatlin’s best-known works, the project for the Monument to the Third International. Letatlajk pays homage to the artist Tatlin, the revolutionary aesthetics of Russian constructivism, and the freedom of art and man. Rajk’s work is one of the most interesting pieces among the progressive, avant-garde interdisciplinary works created by artists working primarily not in the visual art at the time of or immediately before the change of regime, still valid in the field of art.
Kriszta Dékei