Markus Vallazza + Martino Gamper

∗1936/1971, Ortisei, Italy/Merano, Italy
† 2019, Bolzano/Lives and works in London

Throughout his life, Markus Vallazza explored classical and contemporary literature through drawing and engraving. Following his studies in Florence, he spent extended periods in Paris, Rome, Salzburg, and Berlin. From 1985 onwards, he lived and worked in Vienna and Bolzano.

Vallazza’s artistic cycles emerged as free and boldly associative visual interpretations of literary texts. In addition to engaging with figures such as Casanova, Don Quixote, and Dante Alighieri, he devoted significant attention to the heroines of Dolomite legends—particularly those of the Fanes.

The legendary Osteria Traube, located in the centre of Ortisei, was the place where Vallazza met friends each evening during his stays in Val Gardena. On the occasion of Biennale Gherdëina 9, this historic venue serves as the exhibition space for a series of works on paper in ink and red chalk created by the artist in 1992 to illustrate Le donne di Fanis (The Women of Fanis) by the writer Anita Pichler.

In these works, Vallazza reinterprets the mythical female figures of the Fanes and their symbolic connection to the marmots. In her book, Anita Pichler revisits the narrative tradition of these legends, presenting them from a new perspective developed in collaboration with the scholar Ulrike Kindl.

The exhibition design at Osteria Traube was entrusted to the renowned South Tyrolean designer Martino Gamper. Working at the intersection of art and design, and with a particular interest in social and narrative dimensions, Gamper brings together stories of materials, techniques, people, and places in his practice.