Arnold Holzknecht
∗1960, Italy
lives and works in Ortisei, Italy
"Where am I?" - With the monumental-sized sculpture "Toys from the Val Gardena", Arnold Holzknecht ventures into a representational genre that has a long tradition in the Ladin region. The typical doll carved in wood by the people of Val Gardena from the mid-eighteenth century onwards is taken up again by the sculptor and depicted in giant size, retaining both the realistic features and the movable joints. For the artist's concept, it is not important to invent new figures, but to represent existing forms in a different way. A repetition in a different way, which is supposed to be an example of the changed course of things.The peculiarity of this work lies in the fact that it takes up again the classic form of the Nipp figure on a pedestal, sitting or standing on a base. In this case, it is placed directly on the floor and anchored to the side wall of St. Anthony's Church. Her upper body is turned so that she covers her face with her raised arm. The title of the work, "Where am I?", is loaded with an archaic contemplative value filled with references: although the lineage is clear in terms of local tradition, the future reserved for this toy is far from self-evident, even in the face of competition from industrial processes and the mass production of objects. The monumentality of this enormously large wooden doll seems to demand its individual and independent place in the history of sculpture.
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