RELA TIONS IN FOR M

ndthe beyoborder

ndthe beyoborder

Arn

old

Mar

io D

all’

O

Han

nes

Egg

er

Ulr

ich

Egg

er

Sam

an K

alan

tari

Chr

isti

an M

arti

nelli

Sim

on P

erat

hone

r

Mat

thia

s Sc

hönw

eger

Sara

Sch

wie

nbac

her

Mar

ia W

alch

er

Curated by Camilla Martinelli

Relations in formbeyond the borderNovember 21– December 6, 2014

Continuity between art and everyday experience is organized by following the artist’s

own logic in an interaction with his/her surroundings, a continuous transaction be-

tween his/her own intentional subjectivity and the facts s/he experiences. According

to the American philosopher John Dewey, “An experience is a product of continu-

ous and cumulative interaction of an organic self with the world“. In “Art as Ex-

perience”, published in 1934, he gives to the subconscious an important role in the

creative process. He states that art objects exist externally and physically, but then,

the work of art is really what the physical object does within experience. Art is proof

that man can consciously restore the union of sensations, needs, and actions found

in everyday‘s life. Works of art can be seen as important examples of condensed

“experience.” By taking inspiration from Dewey’s assumptions, the main title of the

exhibition refers to the concept of “shaping a relationship process“ that resides in

the making of an artwork (or making of a “shaped“ art experience) that comes from

the relation of the artists with the environment in which they live, in their human

and factual expression. In this case, the “relation’s process” will have taken shape

from the region where the 9 artists live: South Tyrol (the north-east province of Italy

on the Italian/Austrian border). The artworks bring to the attention some personal

kind of relation/reaction towards the South Tyrolean environment. This has not nec-

essarily to do with transfiguring reality in art, but rather with using art to react and

rethink reality. Camilla Martinelli

ARNOLD MARIO DALL’O (1960, Bozen/Bolzano), even this

name, is a valid expression of the typical South Tyrolean

bilingualism. He’s a native German speaker. Arnold studied

at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and has exhibited in

many solo and group exhibitions, both in Italy and Europe.

His work speaks a universal language but at the same time it

expresses forms and perspectives that are deeply rooted in

South Tyrolean culture. There are often religious elements,

but also symbols related to mass culture rather than animal

life. His art ranges from paintings to sculpture. The symbols

of his pictures refer to everyday images - they are a subjec-

tive echo chamber of our collective memory. The works of

Dall’O draw from the contemporary imaginary by recom-

bining symbols and inquiring about their semantic function.

A graphical approach guides his work, and often results

through the use of techniques that remind of a visual texture

made of repetitions and variations. In recent works, the artist

has returned to the dawn of photography and printing. After

exposing silver crystals and raster points to light, he covers

the image by positioning thousand of little dots, all drawn

by hand. It’s the search of a slower time, of a motionless and

durable form. Through this artwork in Den Haag he gives life

to an accidental and chaotic pattern. Some black balls spin

and rotate, they go through the color he has put on the plans,

thus drawing a composition that is a remarkable trace. The

chaotic and random ending result outlines a set that seems

orchestrated and strongly in line with Dall’O unmistakable

style. Even from chaos, through choices and coordinates, a

unique texture comes to life.

Capitalism2014 Installation. color, plastic balls, woodVariable size

HANNES EGGER (1981 Bozen/Bolzano) expresses his art

through the medium of participatory projects and perfor-

mances. His work as an art mediator and event organizer also

borders on his artwork and thus creates a unique and expres-

sive combination. Egger’s work occupies and analyzes public

space sharing. The artist gives people some coordinates, tools

or instructions, by which they are pushed into action. This

action is finally the key player of the performance. His work

exhorts common people to take a special and unconventional

attitude, to understand how they can act in a different way.

Egger’s project for the show in Den Haag will be a meeting

to take place at Quartair on 22nd November, at 3:30 pm: a

form of speed-dating between artists and curators. Several

Dutch curators will be invited to take part, as well as Camilla

Martinelli, the curator of the exhibition “Relations in Form”,

as a special guest, and up to 25 artists. Each artist can choose

at least two curators to meet, discuss and change ideas. The

meetings will last around 10 minutes; then a change. The

project will consist of an installation of chairs arranged with-

in the room, a symbolic mise-en-scene designed to activate

an exchange between people. The various points where the

meetings will take place are all associated with the name of a

specific South Tyrolean mountain. The entire performance

will last for about 2 hours. Afterwards, Egger will personally

cook a Tyrolean meal for the participants, as a sort of “mas-

ter of ceremonies” who will also expose the participants to the

traditions of his native land.

Relation in time - curators meet artists2014 Installation + performance on 22nd November, 3.30 pm

ULRICH EGGER (1959 St. Valentin auf der Heide/San Val-

entino alla Muta) majored in sculpture in Florence and has

exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions throughout Italy

and Europe. His art analyzes the South Tyrolean landscape,

which is understood both through its natural and industrial

meaning. He shows connections and contrasts between an

artificial and a natural world in order to capture special

scenarios that can be defined as “non-places”. In his work

there’s no trace of any human presence, life vanishes com-

pletely. Although the action of mankind on the territory is an

important aspect of Egger’s work, it is shown in a silent and

controlled way, as traces of an action that has passed. His

composing is focused on architectural coordinates by paying

attention to the value of the material body. Whether in photo-

graphs or in sculptures, he makes often use of materials taken

from the South Tyrolean industrial field. His art captures

the potential that everyday life suggests. Shape is a question

of life and life takes place in a world that produces shapes.

The powerful aesthetic that typifies Egger’s work, expresses a

singular way of looking at the South Tyrolean landscape and

makes clear what is not stereotyped but actually present in

reality. In Den Haag, Egger shows a selection of works done

with recovered windows and some photographs inspired by

the South Tyrolean landscape. The works made with win-

dows, reflect upon how our perception is often subdued to

prefixed points of view set by architectural orientations. Our

way of looking at nature is not free, it is instead influenced

by cultural and social data. South Tyrolean imaginary of

the mountains depends on artificial factors, that necessarily

involve our physical/perceptive experience.

My home is my castel 2014Painted-wood window, photo print on canvas and pillow120 x 60 x 20 cm

SAMAN KALANTARI (1972, Shiraz) was born and raised

in Iran, where he studied English language and literature.

Then he moved to Italy as a political refugee. He first lived in

Florence, then moved to South Tyrol where by now, he has

lived for several years. Here he had to integrate into a region

whose population speaks three different languages. He was

confronted with the territory whilst working on his artistic

career, juggling his studies and collaborating with Glass

Research, an association expert in artistic glass manufactur-

ing techniques based in Bolzano. Art, to him, has also been a

way to deal with South Tyrol. Saman’s work thinks of waste

as an artistic material, not understood as rejection, but as the

presence of something residual, or processes of things that

happened and have been. The objects that have experienced

living are often a form of art, left from the dismantling of art

exhibitions. In Den Haag, he shows a work that consists of

materials he collected at the exhibition at Kunsthalle Euro-

center Lana, or more precisely, collected from the installation

/ performance of the art duo Topp & Dubio. The duo invited

people to put in a blender, pieces of paper they had in the

pockets at that moment. Saman’s installation at Quartair goes

back to this experience and remixes some aspects through

different art forms. The performance residual paper is

reshuffled into another blender in order to create a paste

and thus new pieces of paper. With the same paper paste he

made some pinwheel-shaped sculptures. The red and black

color is a homage to the cities of Bolzano and Den Haag.

These sculptures remind of windmills and windmill blades

(the Netherlands) but they are also linked with the Sufi back-

ground, since for the Middle-East the rotating Dervishi are

a symbol of the unity of the universe (Iran). The installation

mixes inputs and references from different cultures, creating

a cross-reference between continuous forms and materials.

Untitled 2014Mixed media+ performance on the opening night

CHRISTIAN MARTINELLI (1970, Meran/Merano) is a real

citizen of the world. He is a self-taught photographer, his

mother tongue is Italian and he has always been driven by

the need to understand and to support with documentary

evidence, places and people from around the world. His

girlfriend and his child live in Merano. He travels incessant-

ly but finally and always comes home for shorter or longer

periods. He carried out several photo reports: in the Balkans,

in Austria, Romania, Moldova, the Czech Republic, Venezu-

ela, Ecuador, Mongolia, Spain, Mexico, and Haiti. He’s been

developing a project called “CubeStories” for several years.

He invented a device capable of producing large-format pho-

tographs of exceptional quality. It is basically a huge camera

with 8m² that he carries all around Europe. In Den Haag,

Martinelli will arrive with his cube and take a series of on-site

photographs. The artist will develop a photo at the exhibition

on the opening night. This image will show the Scheveningen

Pier, a pleasure pier opened in 1959 in the Dutch resort town

of Scheveningen, near Den Haag. After a period of decay the

pier was purchased by a company in 1991. Following a fire

in 2011, the pier’s decay began, which took to the closing of

the whole structure in October 2013. The photo will be shown

close to a photo produced in South Tyrol that portrays one

of the most famous South Tyrolean symbols: the mountain

called Langkofel/Sassolungo. The black and white image does

not make the mountain immediately recognizable, because it

is a negative reversed photograph. By changing the point of

view, the colors and the perspective, the artist plays with our

perception and encourages us to see things in an active way,

the same will be done with the photograph taken in Scheve-

ningen.

Sassolungo & Pier20142 cube-photosapprox. 100 x 130 ca.

SIMON PERATHONER (1984, Brixen/Bressanone) is a

Ladinian artist, this means he also speaks the third official

language of South Tyrol, the minor among the official ones:

German and Italian. He studied in the Gardena Valley, South

Tyrol, and graduated in Art, New Media, at the Academy

of Fine Arts in Venice. His work aims to trigger a dialogue

between art and science. Simon is particularly interested in

the study of meta-languages, meta-images, meta-data and

in particular he proceeds with an analysis of the concepts

of an aesthetic of the error, the failure of technical systems,

decoding and re-encoding errors and interferences, both in

analog and digital forms. He builds up an imaginary that has

a totally different visual codification than the one you would

expect. By experimenting with forms, his conceptual art

expresses the enchantment of an ancient territory through an

international and contemporary perspective. As the exhibited

artwork, the artist has randomly taken from the internet

some photos of the 9 Dolomites’ groups and converted them

into hexadecimal code. This code is widely used by computer

system designers and programmers. Each hexadecimal digit

represents four binary digits (bits), as it is also used to rep-

resent computer memory addresses. According to the artist,

the hexadecimal code is the primary code where human

beings and machine meet and dialogue together. This formal

choice reflects upon the authenticity of images, and raises the

question of copyright on the web, while in real life it concerns

mountains and the concept of the environment, e.g. boundar-

ies. The Dolomites are under the protection of UNESCO, but

the data concerning them are free and can be manipulated,

the same goes for the ability to exploit them. Places are lim-

ited and protected, but protected how and from what? These

stolen images, according to an attitude that was of many

great photographers of the past, portray what it means to be

contemporary, they reflect on language and on the ontological

boundaries of the age of mechanical reproduction.

Stolen Images of the Dolomites - Unesco World Heritage (*.jpg) “Pelmo - Croda da lago”, “Marmolada”, “Dolomiti Bellunesi”, “Dolomiti Friulane”,

“Nördliche Dolomiten”, “Puez – Geisler”, “Schlern – Rosengarten – Latemar”,

“Bletterbach”, “Dolomiti di Brenta”

2014 9 prints on dibond 50 x 70 cm each

MATTHIAS SCHÖNWEGER (1949 Partschins/Parcines),

lives and works in Merano. He studied German, Italian,

History, Art and Philosophy at different universities, in Italy

and abroad. He received his doctorate in comparative litera-

ture at the University of Innsbruck. He took part in several

solo and group exhibitions around the world and lived in

different cities. For several years afterwards he taught litera-

ture in Merano. Schönweger is one of the most eclectic artists

of the South Tyrolean art scene. Scholar, author, sculptor,

painter, conceptual and visual artist, he’s an all-round artist

who expresses himself out of any possible definition. To get

in touch with his art, you need to meet him in person, to see

him perform. The art of Schönweger shows a typical irony,

a spirit both playful and tragic as the result of an attitude

without boundaries, full of conceptualism and visual poetry.

He’s very interested in history and wants to find out traces of

the past in the present times. He rethinks the common func-

tion of the objects he deals with, playing with words and their

polysemous role. Schönweger’s artistic dimension has found

a proper expression in the South Tyrolean War Bunkers. In

these structures that date back to the Second World War, the

artist has given life to a series of “personal museums” – as

they can be defined. When 1999 the Autonomous Province of

Bolzano sold the ancient fortifications, Schönweger bought as

many as 50 bunkers, some of which have become reservoirs

of his personal “items / works.” In these historic and claus-

trophobic bomb shelters, the artist safeguards and protects

objects that make us think about our society of consumption,

they thus rise to a site of redemption for contemporary art.

Some photographs of Schönweger’s bunkers will be exhibited

at the show. These objects are just a small part of what the

bunkers actually hide.

The Bunker as a total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) Before and after 2014 Found objects, photos on forex + performance on the opening night

SARA SCHWIENBACHER (1985, Meran/Merano) reacts to

the South Tyrolean context by giving life to an extreme and

provocative expression of the self. In her performances, she

shows her naked and soft body painted with a bright pink

color, which demands the complete attention of the viewer.

Her actions did not fail to cause a sensation in the local

area. But actually, it’s what her art wants to cause. We have

to keep in mind that the word aesthetic is derived from the

Greek aìsthesis, which means sensation, sensory perception.

Contemporary art, as well as contemporary performance, is

strongly linked to the opposite of sensation, which is concep-

tualism. Sara retrieves instead the primary dimension of art

by focusing on sensation, on her sensation, as well as on the

one of those who “take part” in her actions. The viewer is

always involved in the action, and answers with his body, to

a body. Sara currently lives in Bremen where she continues

her art research. She occasionally comes back to South Tyrol

to perform. She is a native German speaker, she studied in

St. Ulrich, Gardena Valley, and continued her education in

Germany with a specialization in art therapy. On the 28th of

November, at 8.30 pm she will give a special performance at

Quartair, especially made for the project “Relations in form”,

the ideal extension of the main exhibition. The title “rosa me

rekonstruiert Herkunft” (rosa me reconstructed origin) is

about rethinking and rereading elements that belong to her

origins. The starting point will be given by the typical bread

of South Tyrol, on display in its original form at the exhibi-

tion. This bread will be completely transformed by the artist

during the performance.

rosa me rekonstruiert Herkunft2014 Installation + performance on 28th November, 8.30 pm

MARIA WALCHER (1984, Brixen/Bressanone) has given life

to many participatory performances in South Tyrol. She is

also known for her itinerant projects, involving locals from

different areas. She studied in Austria and gained a Master

degree in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies at Bauhaus

University in Weimar. Maria likes moving, getting to know

new places and people, she has achieved her projects for

example in Turkey, Portugal, Bosnia Herzegovina, Mexico,

Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Sometimes she comes

back to South Tyrol to perform. Her work deals with site-spe-

cific projects and socio-political issues. Maria uses art as a

medium to bring social grief into attention and to provoke

discussions. Using a playful and experimental approach,

she wants to involve people into the art process by an in-

terdisciplinary and international cooperation. Her work is

constantly influenced by the issue, the location and the people

with whom she is dealing. The work on display is a carpet,

a straight ornament, out of order. Like in the game of skills,

the 15-puzzle, the viewer is invited to rearrange the carpet,

to mess it up, discovering new structures. Carpets like this

are made of an ornament that repeats and creates a straight

structure. The carpet turns here into a metaphor of the

South Tyrolean cultural identity, which has also been made

by certain rituals and social behaviors that are still repeated.

When such structures are in a mess, people irritate easily

and do everything to rearrange the old order, to go back and

return to the old familiar forms. It is seen as a problem that

has to be solved and “repaired” rather than an opportunity

to break out of rusted structures and experiment new ones.

The carpet, an everyday life object, becomes the key element

to interpret this issue in a playful perspective, its aim is an

interaction with the audience of Quartair.

7x4: out of order2014Wood, carpet190 x 120 cm

39011 Lana (BZ) • ITaLY

KUNSTHALLE EUROCENTERLANA

QUARTAIR CONTEMPORARY ART INITIATIVES DEN HAAG THE NETHERLANDS

NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2014

ndthe beyobor der