Small Space, Great Art

— MICHAEL PEZZEI Photos — MARIANNA K ASTLUNGER, Text

Peter Senoner

Portraits

From the conceptual and the colossal to the empathetic, the art scene in the Eisacktal valley is livelier than ever, with ambitions well beyond South Tyrol. We visit three art studios and discover how the region’s art is full of variety and surprises

AliPaloma

Astrid Gamper

Smiths, locksmiths and glassblowers. AliPaloma’s pieces are produced in the workshops of her close circle of craftspeople.

Bottom right: AliPaloma

also makes miniature wax mountains.

Conceptual art AliPaloma

With its cobbled streets, picturesque old buildings and numerous art studios, Stufels/Stufles is a district with a unique aura to it. Known as the oldest quarter of Brixen/Bressanone, it is also home to conceptual artist AliPaloma. “I love Stufels. It’s part of who I am,” she says. The Brixen-born artist is based in a co-working office in a former butcher’s shop, which over the years has also served as a fruit shop, pasta shop and internet café. She designs her artwork on a computer. “I choose my topic and then decide what material and medium would suit it best,” explains AliPaloma, whose full name is Alexandra Paloma Angerer.

The 28-year-old is currently exploring pressing social and political issues, such as climate change and the fragility of the risk society, and has depicted these themes through miniature wax mountains and fragile anchor chains made from glass. Her pieces are produced in the workshops of her close circle of smiths, locksmiths and glassblowers. “I like to work with craftspeople. There are some really multi-talented geniuses among them, who put their all into finding a solution no matter how experimental my design.” AliPaloma is very enthusiastic in her appraisal of the local art scene: “I have so many opportunities here. If I worked in a big city, there would probably be lots of other people like me.” Despite its relatively small size, she believes that South Tyrol/Südtirol offers some fantastic places for artists to showcase their work. Examples include Brixen art gallery and the fortress in Franzensfeste/Fortezza, where in summer 2021 AliPaloma – who also has a degree in architecture – presented an art installation made from crystal glass bricks and staged her own video performance. “The fortress was built using 20 million bricks, which are an expression of oppressive, patriarchal power,” she says, explaining how she wanted to highlight this theme with her 250-kilogram glass wall installation. “Towards the end of the exhibition, I decided that I couldn’t just remove the wall quietly, so I filmed myself knocking it down. It was very emotional.”

AliPaloma also loves the nature and countryside near her home town and spends a lot of her free time exercising in the great outdoors. “I slip into a role to play AliPaloma. People seem almost disappointed when they discover how normal I am in my private life.” Sometimes she is surprised by the clichéd, romanticised notion that artists can only ever work in a fit of frenzy. “My everyday working life is actually full of admin tasks, research, thinking through ideas and carting things about.”

www.alipaloma.com

Towering a colossal ten metres into the sky on the slopes above Klausen/Chiusa stands COR circus – a bronze statue gazing across the Eisacktal valley from atop a bright pink steel frame. Drive north on the motorway and it is simply impossible to miss! The statue was created by Peter Senoner, a sculptor and artist with a penchant for huge sculptural installations with a spatial, almost architectural, quality. On stepping into his large studio above COR circus, however, it becomes clear that the 51-year-old has also recently been focusing on his drawings, in particular the interplay between different materials in performative settings. The large-format androgynous portraits and artificial landscapes which he created in 2021 during the Transart contemporary art festival in the terraXcube at the NOI Techpark in Bolzano/Bozen are great examples of this. During the festival, Peter swapped his studio for a climatic chamber, where he worked in temperatures as low as -35 degrees as well as in simulated wind and snow storms and in conditions you would expect at 4,500 metres above sea level. Visitors could watch Peter as he worked on his ARTARCTIC series in this inhospitable environment, creating art using graphite and pigments on specially prepared wooden panels. A video of him at work was also streamed to a gallery in Tokyo. “I had no idea how these conditions would affect my creativity and working methods. I kept having to break up sheets of ice. It was an incredible experience.”

For 25 years, Peter has been using his art to explore how humans co-exist with technology and science. His work has been heavily influenced by several years spent working in Germany, the USA and Japan. Today, he ships his sculptures to exhibitions in an equally diverse list of destinations, including Munich, Milan and Los Angeles, counting on the support of freelancers to get everything ready in time. “I focus on multiple pieces and projects at a time. I’m also regularly invited to work as a guest lecturer, such as at the Institute for Experimental Architecture in Innsbruck, the Faculty of Design and Art in Bolzano or more recently TH Rosenheim university. This means that I travel around a lot,” he says, opening the door into his second studio room. After years of commuting, he decided to set himself up here permanently so he could focus more intently on his work and plan his trips abroad more carefully.

“This part of my studio is dedicated solely to my sculpture work,” says Peter, pointing at a raw block of wood. He will use this to craft figures with features such as headsets, using organic shapes which merge seamlessly into each other. By the time the process is complete, the original wood will be utterly unrecognisable. The completed wooden piece will then serve as a template for the cast for the final bronze sculpture, which will be glossed, patinated or mirror glossed. Next to the wooden block are a few casts with a roughly sculpted body and mask-like faces as smooth as glass. Depending on the angle and lighting, they look either fascinating or disturbing.

Outside of his work, Peter is a mountain sports enthusiast who loves to spend time in South Tyrol’s diverse natural landscape. How does he find living in the countryside? “The internet has changed everything. You can stay intellectually connected with the world even from a remote mountain village,” he says, adding that collectors and curators love visiting him here: “They are always pleasantly surprised by how varied the culture, landscape and food are here in South Tyrol. After they visit my studio, I like to take them to the village inn to give them an even better flavour of what we’re all about.”

Colossal art Peter Senoner

www.petersenoner.com

Left: In his workshop,

Peter Senoner creates androgynous portraits and artificial landscapes.

Right: COR circus

towers ten metres into the sky on the slopes above Klausen.

Right: Layers, smudges

and marks. Astrid Gamper creates her figures by producing several drawings, tearing them up and piecing them back together again.

Bottom: Astrid’s small

studio looks out onto the old town of Klausen and all the way up to Säben Abbey.

Empathetic art Astrid Gamper

Astrid’s empathetic depictions of the human body place a particular focus on female nudes.

Astrid Gamper enjoys a spectacular view of the Eisack river and Säben Abbey from her small studio in the gatehouse of the Griesbruck manor house in Klausen. Looking back across the river at the manor house’s historic walls, it is possible to draw some subtle similarities between them and the 50-year-old artist’s work. “Can you see the weather-worn frescoes and markings up there on my tower? The history of this place and the years gone by are interwoven in these walls,” she says. For Astrid, it is important to reflect the passage of time in her art. She expresses her ideas using the human body, with a particular focus on female nudes. Having studied posture and shape from the perspective of fashion, she has a very unique way of looking at the body. In her large-format drawings, she creates empathetic depictions of the sensitivity and vulnerability of life.

Astrid draws her female figures on white paper using a black graphite pencil and a myriad shades of grey. Each of the pieces she creates is a combination of several drawings which she tears up and pieces back together again to allow a unique figure to form. She pulls apart the layers as if the figures are shedding their skin and this process – together with the visible rips, smudges and marks – represents wounds and transformation. “I’m fascinated by the traces which life leaves behind on our bodies and in our souls over the years,” Astrid says. The more time that passes, the more traces there are. When asked if she finds it difficult to tear up her old drawings, she laughs. “Of course it is. It feels destructive, but it is the basis for a successful transformation. And that’s exactly what I’m interested in. Our experiences shape us throughout our lives and cause our personalities and identities to develop. This metamorphosis is reflected in my drawings.” Astrid is particularly fascinated by people’s search for a source of inner strength. Her figures appear delicate and vulnerable, yet also at peace in their harmoniousness. It is from their tenderness that they draw their strength.

In 2021, her most recent major work, a floor-toceiling paper cocoon, won the Lorenzo il Magnifico art award in the Installation Art category in Florence. While the cocoon is falling, the figures drawn onto the paper fall apart. The image of a baby can be seen on the floor, drawn on some of the pieces of paper peeling away from the cocoon. “I try to put myself in other people’s shoes and to be sensitive. I have an empathetic view of the world,” says Astrid, giving an example: “Whenever I draw a baby, I intuitively ask myself how we’re treating our world and what we’re leaving behind for our children.”

And what does she think about the art scene in the Eisacktal valley? “I’m happy to be contributing to Klausen’s art and culture. All the projects, big and small, being undertaken here will help secure the town’s future as a place where art can flourish.” As a long-standing member of the Klausen Association of Cultural Treasures and Monuments and as head of Klausen’s Education Committee, Astrid is heavily involved in protecting the town’s cultural heritage and is a driving force behind many educational initiatives. “I feel a strong connection with my hometown of Klausen. My creativity may come from within, but I am completely in tune with the outside world.”

www.astridgamper.com