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SHARMANKA
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INTRODUCTION
The Millennium Clock Tower is
an over ten-metre construction in wood, metal and, glass.
A timepiece which contains fragments of the story of the
millennium, with its disasters, tragedies, but also its
human, scientific and artistic achievements. A creation
that talks of love, hate, work, play, humour, despair,
life and death.
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Four established
masters were involved in the making of the clock
tower: Eduard Bersudsky, Tim Stead, Annica
Sandström, and Jürgen Tübbecke. The
coordination of the project is under the powerful
and creative dynamism of Tatiana Jakovskaya.
Together they formed a company of mediaeval
cathedral builders: Stead the architect,
Bersudsky the sculptor, Tübbecke the master
clock maker, Sandström the glass artist. Four
artists who are used to work on their own, at
their own rhythm, and who pulled together this
amazing project, learning from each other,
influencing each other. Stead is essentially a
man interested in the natural material world.
Bersudsky is interested in the world’s human
diversity. Sandström is interested in expressing
the tension and communication between the figures
on glass. Tübbecke's interest lies in
engineering, the explainable and the rational. |
The
initial idea for the tower came from Julian
Spalding when he was director of Glasgow Museums.
And it took an adventurous man like Mark Jones,
director of the National Museums of Scotland, to
make it possible to bring such a crazy project to
the Edinburgh public.
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Our own times
seem stable and rational, yet beneath the surface the
contradictions are as striking as they were 800 years ago.
In the tower there are many references to wider political
and historical points. Most come from the social
experiment of communism and the tragic results on human
lives. Because Bersudsky lived through the changes in the
Soviet Union, and survived, his work is as close a
representation of the last century's chaos as anyone
could achieve.
(Royal Museum, January 1st 2000
12pm)
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The
Millennium Clock Tower does not aim to show
everything, and makes no attempt to explain
anything. It is a monument to our history, full
of contradictions and question marks. There are
many images, but you must interpret these in your
own way - see how they are lined up and draw your
own conclusions.
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Essentially it
is human beings with their own characters which are
caught up in the wheels of time, of progress, of war, of
political games, of belief and disappointment.
The pietà at the top of the
spire sums it all up: caring, carrying, carrying on.
The Millennium Clock Makers
Trust
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