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The brilliantly polished surface section
of one of the Bertanie Black boulders
Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld with a
finished stone at the Bertanie quarry
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(Credits to Kelgran Limited - www.kelgran.com)
Two massive granite boulders from Kelgran's Bertanie quarry have been selected to represent Africa in a unique peace project and odyssey that began in Germany more than five years ago.
Thirty years ago Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld built his own 25-metre schooner. He spent the next 25 years conducting charters on this three-masted yacht while he brought up his children and ensured their education. In the mid-nineties he decided it was his time to leave a mark on the world and contribute to international peace and understanding. In November 1996 he and his wife set sail on an epic journey around the world.
His inspiration was to seek two typical 25 to 30-ton natural stone boulders from each of the world's five continents. He would then sculpture, inscribe and polish a surface on each of them to reflect the sun and transport one of each to Berlin, while leaving the other in a suitably prominent place in its own country. The project is self-funded, with 'generous assistance' from sponsors along his travels.
The stones left on each of their continents would be positioned so that their polished surfaces would reflect the light of the sun directly back to it. This would happen at noon, local time, on 21 June each year, thus 'linking the five continents by sunlight'. The stones taken to Berlin will reflect the sun in such a way that they form a geometrical figure. They are being assembled in the Tiergarten, near the Brandenburg Gate, next to parliament.
Von Schwarzenfeld compares the stones in Berlin – their history, sculpturing, reflections and arrangement - to hieroglyphs.
"But, their interpretation – the understanding of their message, intellectually, emotionally or intuitively – is left to the viewer," he emphasizes. "This is the viewer's contribution; a contribution that has the potential to turn this project into a work of art.
"The beauty of this concept is that there is no historical burden. It is a celebration, a looking forward to the future," he says.
The first stones, representing the Americas, were acquired towards the end of 1997 and January 1998, in Venezuela in a riverbed at Gran Sabana, an indigenous national park, 1 500 km from the coast. Von Schwarzenfeld describes them as having a 'characteristic shape, colour and composition', while the University of Caracas analysed them as cuarita arenisca roja. While the stone destined for Berlin was held up during political action by the indigenous population, its 'sister' was placed with the polished surface at an angle of 12"50' towards the north in the Central Park of Caracas in front of the National Art Museum.
Two years later, in January 2000, von Schwarzenfeld was in Australia after crossing the Pacific Ocean and covering 10 000 miles under sail. Having travelled a further 20 000 km 'with an old offroader on the wrong side of the street through the country of kangaroos, emus and koala bears', he found his second stones. "I found a real miracle of nature," he says. "A white granite that includes pieces of another material as big as a fist – the orbicult."
The stone left behind in Australia has its new 'home' in Canberra 'on a straight line from the new Parliament to the Memorial, between the national library and the art gallery'.
In Africa, von Schwarzenfeld finally located his ideal stones in Kelgran's Bertanie Black quarry near Brits in South Africa's North West Province This was the first granite produced by Kelgran in the late 1950s and is characterised by its dark grey uniform quality and colour. The two large boulders selected have a natural shape very similar to the outline of Africa.
Just before von Schwarzenfeld sailed from Richards Bay early in February 2002, he was full of praise for the Kelgran personnel who assisted him."
They were of great help – in locating the stones, moving them and helping me sculpture and polish them. I have never enjoyed such good conditions since I began this project!" he says.
Von Schwarzenfeld hopes that the African stone will be located in Cape Town, preferably at the Waterfront. This is currently under negotiation and has yet to be finalised.
Still the saga is not yet over.
"This was envisaged as a ten year project. I would like the European continental stone to come from Russia and then - the most difficult yet - Asia, hopefully from Tibet, but we will see," he says.
Readers who would like more details of Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld's quest to date or like to follow him in his further adventures, can visit his website on www.globalstone.de. Kelgran's personnel certainly wish him good fortune and fair winds during his far-sighted venture.
