Sensibilità – Empfindsamkeit
Walter Moroder. Homage to Rina Riva, 2016
Walter Moroder (St. Ulrich in Gröden/Ortisei, 1963) received his early training in his father’s workshop, where he learned the art of woodcarving. He continued his studies at the Academy of Art in Munich. Inspired by the vertical, slender figures of Alberto Giacometti, Moroder has made a vital contribution to the renewal of the traditional woodworking art of Gröden/Val Gardena. Like other local artists (e.g. Aron Demetz), he prefers upright, static figures who seem to be completely detached from their surroundings. Although the representation of man is his main subject, he rejects the concept of “figurative art”: “My approach is risky, because I work with figures, with a classical subject, even though I don’t believe that figurative art is possible. I am convinced that art can only be created through abstraction. To me, my sculptures are abstract. Therefore I believe that traditional subjects are obsolete.”
His tribute to Rina Riva (Ala, 1922 – Meran/Merano, 2010) is a sculpture reduced to its essence that seems to be made of wood due to the specially worked bronze. Herself an artist and an accomplished woodcarver, for many years Riva assisted Riccardo Licata at the Scuola Internazionale della Grafica in Venice and was a founding member of the Institut für Kunstgrafik Meran.