Artist Marijan Bekic is a stone sculptor.
He says stone is a link to creation and it shapes you.
Working with stone you have to learn to be patient and to endure, you know to finish the product.
So you learn actually to be patient. He’s certainly taken that onboard
He’s made Wudinna’s “big” thing. It took 20 years to come to life
But almost didn’t happen. "We are sorry we have to cancel
the project. We had, again, a dry year". So we moved to Sydney and then about 18 years
later, 18 years later, Tim said "Marijan, we had a few good years. I'm now Mayor of Wudinna.
We've got Wudinna council support". He said "If you're interested we would
love to resume the project". I said "OK Tim, let's do it. I'm carrying this on my shoulder
for these last 18 years". There was plenty of local pink granite
So we wanted it out of natural stone, we wanted it to be big and we wanted
it to be a sculpture not kitch, so we wanted it to have some artistic form.
There was no arts funding We said "We just have to
organise this ourselves". No matter how much people gave we then decided
around the base we would recognise all donations. We were looking at about $75,000 but if we
included all the in-kind support It's well over $1.5 million project.
A local lady Marlene Boylan, she gave her house
for Marijan and then Marijan's son to come and stay.
Because I've got extra bedrooms I offered my house for them to stay in.
Reporter: Did you expect them to be there for two years?
Initially one, but it did stretch out to two but it was fine.
They were great company, it was good company.
The Butcher, the baker and the publican Fed Marijan and his son David
The whole community helped and for me as an artist it was a big honour.
People trusted me. It’s been 12 years since it was opened
The project touched his soul
…And he stayed It's a great community I must say and
the council gave me a block of land for a dollar and here I am still
and my wife is not too happy but sometimes she comes over and
sometimes I go to Sydney. The land deal mirrored another famous project
Mount Rushmore artist Gutzon Borglam built his studio
looking up at the four presidents
That studio's become part of the narrative of the Mount Rushmore monument.
It made sense that the community offered Marijan an opportunity to build a house.
So he was a recipient of a dollar block. His stone home is becoming an attraction too
It's pretty obvious that that house is becoming part of the narrative of
the Australian Farmer. He is noticing and we're noticing that people are asking
so the drive-bys of tourists that come, not only to see the sculpture, but drive past
where the sculptor currently lives and where he's currently working.
We also see that narrative extending to our cemetery. There are now a growing
number of headstones of people who've departed this community
that Marijan's work commemorates their life.
I had to do headstones to pay the bills. What can you do? Lots of artists
in history, sculptors, they did headstones too.
He loved art from an early age in Bosnia- Herzegovina
Studying art in Switzerland before coming to Australia.
I wouldn't be able to do this in Sydney in the place where we live now.
All the workshops are too expensive. I need the outdoor space for hard work.
He sold major works Here and overseas
I used to say I'm carving the stone but the stone carves me.
I'm actually shaping myself. Stone doesn't tolerate oppression or
aggressivity otherwise you would chip away what you don't need to.
If you're too soft you go nowhere. Stone Masons are becoming a rarity.
This industry, especially monumental mason industry, it's actually dying. All the
Finished headstones and just put the inscription and that's it.
But I don't do that, I still live in the stone age.
He’s left a legacy that will outlast us all.