Although he is German, he dabbles in turbans and violins, reads Epicurus and adores Dahlia from the television series “To Para Pente”. He has lived for almost forty years in the Cyclades, specifically in Naxos, and considers that by learning Greek well, he learned a new grammar of existence. The sculptor Ingbert Brunk he is in love with Naxos marble and Greece.
When you meet him, you realize, indeed, that he has been grafted with many Greek elements, while at the same time he has kept the positive elements of his origin. Gentle, methodical, calm, he has transmitted his peace and humanity to his material, the Naxos marble, which was also the reason that made him stay permanently in Greece. So much so that when you come into contact with his works, the ones he is exhibiting now at the artworx gallery in Kifissia, you feel an irresistible attraction to touch them. Then you find that there is no coldness left in the material. In its shiny marble cushions so smooth, you want to lean on them, in its well-traveled boats, which you say will take you to sheltered ports, in its wonderful tunics, a direct reference to Cycladic art, and everything else.
On the occasion of his “Earth and Light” exhibition at the artworx gallery, which has already caused a sensation, almost fifteen years after his previous one in Athens, Ingbert Brunk spoke to “ET” of Sunday for what he presents, for his relationship with Greece and his country, for everything that connects him with his material and the island of Naxos.
New exhibition in the gallery artworx. What are you presenting in this exhibition?
In the welcoming space, created by Isabella Frances and Maria Xanthakou in Kifissia, I exhibit some of my classic works, as well as new creations. The classic tunics, the marble cushions, the crosses, the wall hangings, which highlight the uniqueness of the material, are forms that occupy me on a permanent basis and I return again and again, depending on the piece of marble that I find and inspires me. Among the new forms, which I have been dealing with for the last few years and exhibiting at artworx, are the boats and the “folded fabrics” made of marble. They are forms associated with travel and human wandering as a process of coming of age and as an attempt to overcome the fragility of existence. Apparently, it has to do with the fact that I’m turning 60…
In the award-winning documentary “Homeland of Marble”, which deals with your work and life, you say somewhere that you felt like a stranger in your own place. Why did you feel that way?
Both my parents were born and lived their early life in Prussia. They came as refugees to today’s Germany in 1945. They initially settled in Northern Germany, next to the river Elbe, which formed the natural border between West and East Germany. The sense of violent uprooting and loss of their universe was a dominant feeling that permeated our own lives as children. Before I was seven years old, we moved from the original refugee village and settled in Southwest Germany, in the wine villages of the Rhine, in search of a better fortune. Well, the roots in the classical sense did not exist.
Finally, guilt over the crimes Germany committed in World War II created for many people, especially my generation, an added feeling of “foreignness.” Thus, the search for a new, my own, homeland came very naturally and partly unconsciously.
And Greece, specifically Naxos, became your homeland. How did it occur;
I came to the Cyclades and specifically to Naxos, as a final student at the School of Fine Arts in Berlin. It was the spring of 1984 and I saw a beautiful and mythical place. The Venetian castle of Chora, the dozens of Byzantine chapels, the villages in the interior of the island, the stone terraces with small vines and the unique Naxos marble. I fell in love with the place and the material. For forty years I have been working only with Naxos marble. The people of the island, and especially the people around the marble, were kind and gave me the space, physically and mentally, so that I could feel welcome, settle in Naxos and be able to create my works.
Visiting Germany, keeping in touch with your home country?
I make sure to go twice a year, both to my ancestral home, where my brother and nieces live, and to the area where I grew up, where my two sisters live. Almost every year I have an exhibition in a gallery in Europe or participation in some of the major art fairs abroad, so I make combined trips. I see the family, friends, customers who have become friends over the years and I have the honor to carry something of the shine and light of Naxos marble all over Europe.
Do you want your projects to have utilitarian value?
I believe that art has a mental use. If I make a form, a container, I aspire for it to house thoughts or to be an occasion for the creation or expansion of a mental experience.
What is your next plan or dream? What are you preparing?
I don’t have anything specific in mind. It is enough for me to have the physical strength and mental constitution to continue working under the Greek light.
“I’m inspired by daily routine”
The more I work and lose myself in the process of creation, the more things are born
How does the process of creation evolve? Do you have a specific vision for the project you are making and are you looking for the right piece of marble or vice versa?
I am almost always guided by the material itself. The transparency of the marble, its intense color elements, from the various deposits that permeate the Naxos marble, are the dominant elements for me to choose a piece of primary material. I believe that marble wants abstraction, simple forms. I am interested in my works being a strong presence, but through abstraction, not imposition. This is one of the reasons I prefer not to give names to my works. I want them to be open to the viewer’s interpretation.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
I’m basically inspired by everyday life. From the form of every thing that is around me. I think the core of my inspiration is the way I see things. A leaf, a feather, the curve of a piece of wood can become an occasion for a work. On the other hand, I am inspired by the work itself. The more I work and lose myself in the process of creation, the more things are born. I believe more in friction with the object, in knowing and feeling the material rather than in inspiration as an external or somehow metaphysical factor. Even if there is muse-inspiration in the sense of the ancients, it only visits you during hard work.
I work twelve months a year in natural light, outdoors. Only in this light can I see the forms. I believe that Naxos marble can and does make sense to be worked only under the Cycladic sun. The conditions in Naxos and especially in Azala are ideal for this process.
How did you decide to leave Chora and settle in Azala?
The years I lived and worked in the castle of Chora provided me with a rare rural experience and abundant inspiration. Over time, however, the crowded country began to weigh on me. I chose to build my atelier and my workshop in an isolated part of Eastern Naxos. A place timeless and at the same time full of history. The Korfari of Amygdalia, Cycladic tombs, the aerial railway with the beautiful port of Moutsouna, where emery was loaded, constitute a universe of dense history and continuous human presence, for 6,000 years. The power of the Aegean with its meltemias, the almost Homeric shepherds with their flocks, the landscape with faint lines from the other Cyclades islands create the ideal environment for my work.
Info
“EARTH AND LIGHT”
SCULPTURE EXHIBITION BY
INGBERT BRUNK
WHERE: artworx gallery (Kolokotroni 1, Kifissia, 1st floor, tel. 2106236721)
EXPOSURE TIME: Until March 9
WORKING HOURS: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 11.00-20.00 & Wednesday, Saturday: 10.00-16.00
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