On how from wanted to be like Napoleon ended up as an artist, Alberto tell us his story of being a sculptor in Czech Republic.
Alberto welcome us in his workshop outside the center of Brno. The white dust from the statues he has been working on come to us too. I feel like at home, I think to myself. I am familiar with all the tools, the white marble, the small drafts of clay to be done later at a bigger size. My father being a sculptor too, used the same tool and I know that if you go into a workshop like this, expect to get dirty.
He talks in Spanish with me, some words in Italian with Anastasiia and others in Czech with Olena, my team mates for this project. The conversation between them is surprisingly fluent and I need to translate very little (lucky me). He tell us that lately he is working a lot on gravestones on which he must carve the decorative motives (flowers or plants) to be then sent to the company that will add the names of the deceased. The stones are imported from India, very hard, he said. They are a black-reddish granite all shiny and polished in one side. All of us wonder silently if this demand for graveyards is related to the current pandemic but none comment it.
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| Sunset approach while Alberto give last touches to a small marble statue. |
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| A mask, a pneumatic hammer, polishers are tool used to carve marble and granite when not working on clay. Sculpture would be an expensive hobby, he says. |
We set up the cameras in the backyard, test microphones, I read my notes and get ready. Three, two, one, go!
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| Alberto working a project of two centaurs fighting. |
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| His daughter on the left, a spartan cat, he and a bust of woman, all in Carrara marble. For sculpture, he says, stone is the material for excellence. |
"Michelangelo you know. He is the teacher of teachers. It is like a sculptor Christ. A before and after"
"Painting is to add while sculpture is to remove."
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| Casts of the faces from his models and friends decor his workshop. Below Poseidon awaits to be finished. |
"If you don't master drawing, you can't sculpt."
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| Drawing and anatomy are the most important things for a sculptor. |
You can follow Alberto on his social channels:
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| Saint Barbara, now in the construction area of a tunnel that will connect the Brno Hospital to the city's tram line. Santa Barbara is the patron of miners, that is why it is there. Photo: courtesy of the author. |
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| Lysippus, marble sculpture - Symposium of figurative sculpture in Crimea 2019 Lysippus, mramorová socha - sympozium figurální sochy na Krymu 2019. Photo: courtesy of the author. |
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Sculpture done in a symposium in the city of Biga-Turkey, the theme is Troy! Here is Achilles and Hector trying to free themselves from the stone! Photo: courtesy of the author. |
