Adolf Vallazza 100

Museion, the Bolzano Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, pays tribute to the artist Adolf Vallazza, born in Ortisei, on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The exhibition dedicated to him and displayed at Museion Passage has been organized in collaboration with the Archivio Adolf Vallazza. It brings together a selection of drawings, ranging from the 1960s to the present day, with ten large abstract wooden sculptures presented for the first time in the same museum space.

The exhibition, which consists mainly of the artist's more abstract wooden sculptures - including totem poles, menhirs and bird sculptures, some from the Museion collection - is also an opportunity to acquaint the general public with Vallazza's graphic work, from the 1960s up until today. The act of drawing has always and continues to accompany the artist's work as a sculptor. The drawings and sketches, mounted on the wall and in a display case, are in different formats and techniques, but they all testify to the formal research and spatial and symbolic relationships of his productions.

For Adolf Vallazza, sculpture has a meaning that changes constantly. It can be an aesthetic composition, a throne, a mythical totem, or a prop in a dance performance. A sculpture is therefore a layered surface, inscribed with functions and connotations that go beyond a specific period or meaning. In this way it becomes timeless and lets time itself - and the viewer - interact with it.

Vallazza began his career as a painter, then shifted in the 1960s to sculpture using wood from old barns in Val Gardena to transform the ephemeral into the eternal and animate his imposing sculptures.

For the duration of the exhibition, in Museion's Infolounge space, visitors will also be able to watch two documentaries dedicated to the artist. The first, made by Rai Südtirol, is in German while the second, made by Lucio Rosa, the great photographer and documentary filmmaker who recently passed away, is in Italian.... read the rest of the article»