sculpture, is something theological or liturgical, oriented to religious feeling,
but in a very open manner. In other words it is obvious that nature itself is
something that is bigger than a little human bastard. And that this feeling is
why you become a sailor, or I became an artisan, in my case, because I know
that there is something in nature that overwhelms me more than myself, more
than humanity. And I think that sculpture from the very beginning of time has
always been something to remind you of that.”
And it here that we can start to understand the role of his art and it’s higher
purpose. Using the character of longevity and timelessness possible in a material like stone, he has been successful in using the properties of the many
different types of stones he has worked to make a very basic almost primitive metaphysical statement. His artisanal, craft like approach to stone cutting
sometimes making it smooth and perfect other times allowing it to exhibit its
rough and natural properties says a lot about his commitment to the connection between man and nature. He comments “Sculpture has lots to do with
tragedy, like Shakespeare or the Bible or like those things that are bigger than
stories to become something to do with nature and humanity moving in that
nature. And this probably has something to do with god, with the whole, with
very big ideas, yes.” The shapes cut into the stone, the patterns of the marble,
the significance of simple ma rkings, the qualities of light come together in
Corberó’s art in an abstract yet direct way to convey these ideas in a highly
symbolic way that refers to human existence. His numerous rough sculptures
of shapes of people trapped in their humanity is a basic conundrum of man
as a spiritual yet material being. This metaphysical and existential situation
is something that occupies Corberó’s thinking. For in his sculpture his desire
despite his sometimes pragmatic view of life is to use his art to express some
basic facts of the human condition. “There is a friend of mine called Russell
Page who was a fantastic landscape gardener, said that the garden was a song
of praise, an act of faith and the embodiment of hope. And sculpture is very
much the same.”
Although still quite active and with a long record of accomplishments, he has
exhibited in various countries in Europe in addition to New York and Japan,
and has his works in the MOMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Corbero is not completely
satisfied. He explains, “When you are young you don’t have the time to know
how to do what you want to do. And then there are the details of money,
knowledge etc. These are details, the problem is time. By the time you have
used your time, you have used your time and there is not enough time and
people begin to do their best work when there is no more time. Now I am
making the sculptures I wish I could do when I was 20. By the time you can do
the sculptures that you wanted to do, you are almost dead…Because life is a
mafia invention.”
KASIM-ARALIK 2010 • NATURA 33