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THE NAVE
Where people live, love and die
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The nave stands on top
of the crypt. In the forefront you see the
pendulum with a death figure sitting on a convex
mirror, possibly reflecting yourself as you are
looking at it. You might be tricked into thinking
that this pendulum swings under the influence of
gravity, at the rhythm of your pulse. But then
you realize that the swing is irregular,
sometimes short, sometimes long, sometimes
dangerously so, it goes out of control. This
pendulum cannot be part of the clock, clocks
perform regular movements in equal intervals of
time. |
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Look up and you'll
see the other end of the pendulum: a dark head
with red vampire eyes. You might recognize
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, founder of the Russian
Communist Party. As he swings from right to left,
left to right, you notice the two creatures on
either side of him: on the right Hitler with his
white arm band, on the left Stalin with his pipe.
Both of them have grown reptile's tails, and they
are sawing away at people's lives. They are the
ones in charge of the pendulum, they decide the
tempo.
The Nave is populated
with kinetically animated figures. Amidst the
whirring wheels and chains and cogs and bells you
discover these little creatures:
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There is a jester
hiding behind the pendulum. There is a Chaplin
like figure. Someone plays the violin, he looks
like Einstein. (They say he was an accomplished
amateur violinist), there is the sweet dreamer,
oblivious of the surrounding chaos, having his
brain scoured by the happy hippo on her bike. There
is a reaper-like creature showing off its
bisexuality. There is an immensely sad and
resigned looking organ-grinder grinding away, in
contrast with the she-monkey jumping up and down
and having such a good time.
Between more cogs and wheels you spot
the King, chained, heavily weighed down, his
strings pulled you don't know by whom. A green
lanky dreep pulls more strings you trace the
object of his desire to a female figure perched
on a rocking horse, totally concentrated on her
riding pleasure. There is a couple stuck in a
small frying pan - he looks in one direction and
she in another. It is clear that they will never
turn round and look into each other's eyes.
The Nave is the playground.
Of people with great creative intellect, of
illusionists and entertainers, of people like you
and me, who go about their everyday life of work,
love, and play, unaware of the menacing trio
above....
The Lean Pig and the Fat Cat, friendly
gargoyles. If they are supposed to serve as a
magical defence of sacred places - to frighten
the uninitiated and to ward off evil - they
somehow don't look the part. On the contrary,
they are inviting you to come nearer.
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kinetic
= causing or producing motion
As a kinetic sculptor,
Bersudsky's aim is to make movement itself an integral
part of the design, and not merely to impart movement to
an already complete static object. He starts by
constructing the main frame, with the scrap he happens to
have at the time: loom wheels, bicycle wheels, chains,
cogs, pulleys, dentist's chair, sewing machines,
lawnmowers, agricultural junk. Once he has made the main
frame, he adds bells and his little creatures. The
figures are carved in wood (they usually remind you of
somebody you know..), they are painted and animated.
Bersudsky, not a verbally articulate man, tells his
stories through his sculptures.
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The story he tells us
in the tower is partly a social satirical
commentary, but above all it is the story of
human relationships that he is most interested
in, the good and the bad, the strong and the
weak, the beautiful and the ugly. Bersudsky often
treads on thin ice in our society of political
correctness. But he does it with such humour, and
above all, with such tenderness and compassion
that it is hoped that he will be forgiven... |
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