hand hammered copper, 12 x 5 x 4,6 m (39 x 16 x 17 ft)
At the Mercy of Nature (Sisyphus Part X)
The artwork appears as though it’s from another universe – like a meteoroid that collided with various objects on its journey to Earth, and could as well have crushed us. Our destiny ultimately rests in the hands of nature. Marius Ritiu strategically places his meteoroid artworks in several locations worldwide, akin to a modern-day Sisyphus persistently pushing a boulder uphill. Copper is a material that’s literally binding the world together because of its role in transport and communication. When an astronaut gazes down from space, national borders are invisible. This notion encourages humility and invites us to transcend our divisions. Copper has not played a role in human history, it also shares a connection with the cosmos. Already since ancient times, alchemy has associated seven materials with what they considered to be the planets, linking copper to Venus.
Copper repoussage involves an extremely labour-intensive, artisanal approach, akin to a variation of the technique used in crafting the Statue of Liberty. Marius Ritiu places copper plates around a stone, initiating a months-long process subjected to millions of hammer blows. Gradually, the plates assume the shape of the underlying object. Once the desired form is achieved, the metal is methodically dismantled, plate by plate, and then reassembled. The inspiration for using copper traces back to Marius Ritiu’s youth in Romania, where frequent power outages in the evenings led to inventive solutions using copper wires from bulbs to generate electricity.
Beaufort Triennial, Oostende, Belgium (2024)