Sapphona's ears sprinkled with star dust: Interview with Maciej Rozenberg

Introduction

“Maciej Rozenberg presented delightfully beautiful utilitarian objects. When dealing with such beauty, a person feels completely out of place. Behind the black velvet coat in the Amber Museum, we should actually be silent, but we are talking about the exhibition “Tender Jewellery” and a few other important matters.” - Diana Lenart

Conversation

Have you ever found amber on the beach?

Yes, but that's not why my fascination with amber began. It resulted from the fact that I am associated with Gdańsk, and here amber means so much to so many people and still becomes important for the next generations. What brings me closer to him is what I find in him. I am interested in the passing of time and the aesthetics associated with it, the interaction of physical and chemical conditions, their accidental mark imprinted or embedded in amber.

This is matter that makes you wait for millions of years. You work very close to this matter - under a microscope. Do you sometimes take your observations as a message from the past?

I am interested in antiquity, the struggle of man with the need to create. The ancient cultures described and the artifacts available in archaeological museums dating back several thousand years BC seem very distant. Such a feeling can accompany only until the moment of meeting with amber. Its history dates back more than 30 million years, and the aesthetics of nature, which it perfectly carries in itself, arouses admiration and evokes respect. Amber in its interior is fascinating, but I am most interested in the world that takes place on its surface. Its unique fingerprints, imprinted textures of rocks, wood, leaves and perhaps something that we will no longer know today.

We live in a time of crisis, of breakthroughs. Can we learn anything from the stone?

The process of development and decline of human-shaped cultures is natural and historically documented. The most important thing is that we contribute to development and not accept indifference that leads to collapse. Amber is very demanding, so it teaches humility, deprives of artificiality and enhances subtle actions, it seems that only such can stop us from trying to dominate its natural beauty, sometimes so inconspicuous as to even imperceptible.

Who is this woman in the showcase?

Connoisseurs of ancient poetry date her life to the turn of the 7th-6th centuries BC. Her name is Sappho - Sappho, this is her face, as I imagined her captivated by her poetry, which has survived only in fragments. The texts found by archaeologists sometimes do not have a middle, a beginning or an end, in these missing fragments they can only be imagined. The Sappho brooch actually consists of 4 brooches, as if fragments of a broken stele, maybe a ceramic vessel: eyes, mouth and nose. Aesthetics of imagined archaeological artifacts, an image of time that no longer exists. Igor Mitoraj, also fascinated by this kind of aesthetics, spoke of “nostalgia for a lost paradise”. In the reliefs discussed, I used several techniques to achieve the intended effect, including the technique of multiple milling Ice-Dress and the type of immersion of the object in amber dust giving the effect of sea salt or sand particles, the natural environment of amber finds.

But you create for modern women.

For me, tenderness is not a feature of men, beauty does not concern them either. If Eros were beautiful, he would not strive for this perfection. The good of this world also does not come from men. I focus on the world of women and for women I create. It seems to me that all security and good are women who are the personification of beauty and good.

And fashion?

What I do cannot be fashionable, I strive for absolute values, which in principle are timeless, although unattainable on the whole. Certain qualities that we seek to resurrect in ourselves: goodness, love, excellence in any field - from the beautiful zoning of urban space, to making a good meal. There is an infinity of such activities, and everyone can do something worthwhile. I am fascinated by people who improve throughout their lives. They show some kind of humility that testifies to our humanity, respect for others and for nature, you could say that it is a co-responsibility, but also a responsibility for what will be left of us, which archaeologists will discover in a few thousand years.

Perfection can also imply a departure from creative freedom

Perfection is a skill, but it is freedom that leads to perfection. By creating we have free choice, we can err or successfully move towards the goal. The goal, of course, is difficult to define, especially in modern times, where the theory of art has long overtaken the capacity of human perception. On the opposite side, pervasive pattern duplication and conventionalism threaten. As an antidote, the works of my masters appear, who, as I know, were rarely wrong. They reached a high degree of perfection, and their treatises were the result of their experience, they were a summary of all creative activity. The works of art that we see in museums cause a stir, because they were made with the aim of striving for perfection, and it does not matter much what era they are talking about. Each brought outstanding creations in their heyday.

And what about chance?

It's about the planned... It turns out that the creation of such an effect makes it possible to deprive the work of man's natural artificiality. Observing nature closely, it is easy to see that the repeatability of forms does not exist, while its aesthetics are beyond our rational control. Therefore, it is impossible to imitate nature, you can only try to imitate the processes occurring in it.

Around the house where I live with my family are scattered specified roots brought from the beach, the richness of their forms is captivating. In imaginary comparison with the most outstanding sculptures of my favorite sculptor, Henry Moore, these dry boughs seem to be sculptures more perfect in their finitude. They have something in them that even an outstanding artist can only strive for.

I saw your portrait in Agamemnon's posthumous mask. This shows at the same time a sense of humor about oneself, which is necessary when dealing with great beauty, so as not to become a buffoon, but it is also playing with the theme of death. There is also death in amber, and this is not only about the living dead - inclusions, but about the Lord's inspiration from the jewelry found in the tombs.

Death does not play an important role in my life, in the sense that I treat it in a natural way. That I live and that I die is part of the laws of nature, and I do not attach importance to what will happen next. It is important that you do not lose your life while living. Edward Stachura called this concept of life - poetry - everything is poetry. Poetry is a perfect life. Father Twardowski encouraged us to hurry to love people — during life. Following the voice of poets, I try not to forget this, and everything that comes after, a kind of mystery that is so important in our culture, seems completely irrelevant. The tombs of the Pharaohs, which cost the lives of the people who built them and the animals who were the unfortunate victims of the rite, after years turned out to be nothing more than the treasures of robbers. Our cemeteries turn into parks so that after a few hundred years no one remembers that they were there. Let's remember ourselves living, we are only a micron part of the whole.

Are we going to be stardust?

Just as other lives will arise from us, so we are part of other lives.

The mask of Agamemnon is “in my face” for many reasons, it is a tribute to antiquity, it is like respect for the history of the human act of creation, also the need to hide behind what I do on a daily basis. Thankfully, I'm not a fan of mine yet.

Jewelry that has survived to our times in considerable quantities actually comes from tombs, although it is not always jewelry fulfilling the burial rite. For me, the source of inspiration is the jewelry itself. Not why it served as a ritual act of transfer to the afterlife, but rather what was left of it. It is perfectly clear from her examples that ancient primitive techniques gave wonderful results. It is clear that there was a man behind this work. He had to because he didn't have computer programs. I don't have to, but I really care so that in my jewelry you can feel the value of direct contact with matter, precious metals and amber.

Let's end with beauty and love

Amber itself evokes emotions in me when I find exactly one that fits into my search plan, my sensitivity and my needs to fix the world aesthetically. Then I perfectly feel his potential and feel as if only subordinated to him. I implement it in several developed techniques, but this is not the end of the search for new means of expression. The plan is much broader, after all, it is about a new revolution, the beginning of a new stage, it is about a completely new amber.

Maciej Rozenberg's “Sensitive Jewellery” is available to visitors until the end of 2024. The exhibition's substantive team plans to move it to Italy, where the Amber Trail used to run. The exhibition will involve the City of Gdansk, the Gdańsk International Fair, the Amber Museum, numerous scientists. Until then, several more objects will be built to enrich the exposition. The Amber Museum is one of the branches of the Gdańsk Museum - an institution that includes, among others, the House of Uphagen, the Manor of Artus, the Town Hall of the Main City, the Wisłoujście Fortress, the Amber Museum and others. The branches of the museum, in addition to sightseeing, offer thematic classes, curatorial tours, walks with experts and field games.

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Illustrations:

https://www.maciejrozenberg.com/index.php?lang=pl

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