Many years ago I met a wise man in India who said we should be like water lilies – live in water but not be of it. When I met Bertil more than 10 years ago, I immediately felt I had found such a water lily.
Alert intelligence combined with filigree sensibility, a self-educated individual who is always opening up new spaces for himself, a restless spirit and body who never appears to stand still. Always one step ahead of himself yet, to the outside world, constant in his artistic expression. Since I’ve known him he has worn different shoes on the left and right feet and the small bells in his dreadlocks sound of another life. Over the years his body has become a tattoo masterpiece and he has the aura of a rock star.
Bertil is what you would call a real artist with all his desire for harmony and inner turmoil, full of love yet incapable of a relationship, always communicating yet also autistic by choice. He sees the world width his own eyes, always the shapes in his eyes and the sound sequences in his ears. Drummer, musician, producer, light designer, photographer, sound technician, stage builder, computer specialist – Bertil is whatever you want him to be with such a great degree of helpfulness that it borders on self abandonment yet uncompromising in artistic matters.
Despite its great wealth, this work only really conveys a small extract from the manifold world of his imagination and impressions. Yet everything is still comprehensible. Bertil Mark is no oddball or fantasist but represents a creativity which is lived and living dialectic. Or, Insight – Outside Welcome to his world!
by Parago Seiler
Bertil Mark is an award-winning show and conceptual lighting designer who is mostly known for his work by playing lights with artists and bands for music. he is part of the german design collective #LesUrbanProgressives