Adolf Vallazza

The renowned artist from Ortisei exhibited his works at the Church of San Barnaba in Bondo–Sella Giudicarie during the summer of 2024.

Adolf Vallazza and the exhibition “Sacred and Profane” The Church of San Barnaba in Bondo, in the municipality of Sella Giudicarie, has confirmed its summer cultural programme underlining, in the name of art, its growing importance as a cultural hub and reference space for the valorization of leading artists. The most recent artist to be hosted in the Baroque church was Adolf Vallazza, a sculptor from Ortisei in Val Gardena. His exhibition, entitled “Sacro, profano”, opened on 20th July 2024 until the last weekend of September. The initiative, which was desired by the municipality of Sella Giudicarie, was realised in collaboration with the Archivio Vallazza and Galassia Mart. This alliance with the territory gave concrete form to the public function of the Mart as an institution for the conservation and enhancement of a shared heritage.

Roberta Bonazza and the Exhibitions at San BarnabaAfter completing the trilogy dedicated to the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri with the exhibitions of Fabio Bucciarelli (2021), Willy Verginer (2022) and Mauro Cappelletti (2023), Roberta Bonazza, curator of the exhibitions proposed at San Barnaba, has returned to be inspired by the mysteries of the mountain and the forest, turning her attention to the ancestral and symbolic world of the artist from Ortisei.

Adolf Vallazza and His ArtIn Val Gardena, where the craft of wood sculpture has been practised by the local population for centuries, Adolf Vallazza has forged his own path by combining tradition and contemporary influences: the totem poles, menhirs and thrones carved from wood that is years or centuries old, often salvaged from old South Tyrolean farmhouses, have the forms of contemporary art while simultaneously evoking ancient myths and symbols of the imagination. Wood, the material of nature, even before it takes the form given to it by the artist, tells the story of the place to which it belongs through the grains, knots, circles and colours given to it by the essence from which it comes and by time.

It All Begins with the Life Cycle of the Tree"The Sacred, profane theme chosen for the exhibition set up in the 17th-century church of Bondo - explains exhibition curator Roberta Bonazza - is realised in unison, holding together forms of a mountain archaism and a refined sacredness in the play of postures and joints. It is the unravelling of a language that, in the path from the nave to the altar, becomes a grammar without pauses, sacredprofane in a single word that is particularly noteworthy in the context of our existences. “Everything begins with the life cycle of the tree - Bonazza continues - which makes its sturdy skeleton available to be caressed again and made meaningful to the eye. The renewed cycle of wood is translated into reality of form by the sculptural art of Adolf Vallazza, in an attempt to perpetuate what man creates in order to leave a trace of his feelings. The Val Gardenabased artist pays homage to the changing seasons of trees through his bold exploration of wooden materials, focusing on the season closest to us, more intimate, more domestic: old wood recovered from farms or disused barns."

A Century on the throne of art

100 Years of CreativityOn 22nd September, during the Bondo exhibition, the Ortisei sculptor turned 100. An enviable goal, the turn of the century, and an opportunity to confirm the unbroken interest in a still prolific career. The desire to make art” - says Adolf Vallazza - is alive because it is inside me, while the ideas, themes and motivations come over the years, with time, observing the world, which is a wonderful place”.

ExhibitionsSo many exhibitions have taken him all over the world throughout his life. Not closed within the green walls of the valley, but open to the world with numerous exhibitions that allowed him to meet, for example, film director Ermanno Olmi, Olivetti’s artistic director (and future director of Palazzo Grassi) Paolo Viti, writer, poet and stage designer Tonino Guerra. The second monograph on Adolf Vallazza was published in 1984, with a cover by Bruno Munari.

CollectionsHis work is now featured in many collections, including the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, the Civic Museum and Museion - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano, the GAM- Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Turin, Arte Sella - The Contemporary Mountain in Valle di Sella (Trentino), the Museo del Novecento in Milan and the MART (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto).

“The desire to make art is alive because it lives within me, while ideas, themes, and motivations are born over the years, with time, by observing the world, which is a wonderful place.”