Arta figurativă a ţăranilor secui. Meşteşuguri, mitologie şi folclor în Corund – Harghita
Sezklers’ Figurative Folk Art. Crafts, Mythology and Folklore in Corund, Harghita County

Summary/Abstract: The present article is written as a result of a field research that, in order to examine the ethnic self-identification in Romania, the author pursued in 2007 and 2010 among several minority groups also including the Szeklers from the village of Korond (Harghita County). The text below mainly focuses on artifacts (in ceramics, woodcarving, and tinder processing) and narratives – equally shown to reflect the Szekler folk culture. In accordance with such documents, local potters are described to reiterate their prestigious ethnic ancestry in the contemporary Sezkler worldview. Similarly, woodcarvers in Korond give shape to rich decorative themes that, in their compositions, appear to somewhat “unify” their civilization’s geographic and ontological regimes. As to the motives that are represented though the craft of tinder processing, their environmental imprint as well as traditional-occupation references, resonate with the ornamentation content from pottery or woodcarving artifacts. The ethno-folkloric accounts in Korond outline a sort of cyclical enactment of ancient Magyar / Szekler effigies, as a continuous reintegration of human life, cosmic rhythms and “strata”, together with the ineffable presence of ethnic ancestors.

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