BY FOOT AND MIND, BY HAND AND HEART
I am a South-Tyrolean artist currently living in Schlanders in the valley of Vinschgau.
I was born in Brixen, South-Tyrol, where I spent my childhood, a time when no one seemed to understand me and I did not understand why I wouldn’t fit into the given frame of daily life. The valleys seemed narrow, viewless and foggy so I urged myself to go when I was 19, thinking it would be easier somewhere else. I decisively wanted to go far away. My first destination were the Netherlands, a flat land, where the sky seemed bigger. There I studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Crazy years of learning, trying and doing in a place of creativity, stimulation and exploration. By 2012 I had established a diverse portfolio of interests, skills, and experiences with a focus on ceramics and textile and graduated Cum Laude from the Man and Leisure department. Filled with creativity and an urge to face work I moved in 2013 to Paris - a vast, unruly, noisy, and seductive city. There I worked for 5 years as the creative assistant of Lidewij Edelkoort, observing and absorbing, traveling the world, giving lectures, teaching at universities whilst learning about textile, image and creative consulting. Work took me into photography, an artistic medium, which I could not deal with at first, as it seemed to be contradictory to my major interests of hand, matter, and tactility. One day though I understood that the craving of my hands for what photography can not be had tuned my eye. This urge and tension had so become a principal expression within my photographic work.
Life was accelerating and work was challenging. I had found so much, but finally, I did not find my place. Life in Paris was ultimately just as unruly as the city itself. I had to reorient and I had to face something far deeper and steeper than my professional growth. There was a need to go once again and reorient, to root and to work not only with my eye and mind but from the soul, with hands and heart.
In 2018 I was ambitiously looking for a fitting Master program, but I could not find what I was aiming for. So, I decided to outline the most significant interests I wanted to explore in order to create a structure for myself, which allows me to investigate these interests and learn from the related professionals. In reverse, to a common study program this structure is dynamic and is directly implemented into real life.
Following my pursuit of textiles, I went to India and then to Nepal, where I was looking for a surrounding, for people, animals, and some land that in symbiosis could help me to develop my first collection of rugs. Nepal gave me all of what I was seeking for and surprisingly reconnected me to the mountains of South Tyrol, where I live and work again since 2021.
These difficult and wonderful years have had me traveling diametrically - far out and deep into myself. Today I am very proud to present to you a part of the treasures I have found on a journey of foot and mind, of hand and heart.
If you have any questions about my activities as an artist, designer, photographer, or creative consultant, to my products, sales, or possible collaborations then don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Daniel
