Main artist

Florian Tschurtschenthaler | *2001 in Innichen, lives in Sexten/Moos 

“Grounded” is the word Florian Tschurtschenthaler uses to describe himself. Craftsmanship runs in the family: his great-grandfather, grandfather and father all carved. He knew early on that this, too, was his path, and after compulsory schooling he attended Provincial Vocational School for Artistic Craftsmanship in Val Gardena / Gröden, South Tyrol. He then completed a specialisation as a wood sculptor at the same school. When he sees a piece of wood, he first senses what it might become — technique comes afterwards. His figures are expressive and rich in detail; their range extends from sacred motifs to people of everyday life, with particular care for the faces. Since 2021 he has been self-employed, by his own account in a period of artistic self-discovery: in search of his style and of himself. When he is not carving, he works in the forest. The wood he later works with comes from there. Sometimes he even sleeps on the forest floor, beside the figure he is currently working on. It is there that he feels most connected to himself. 

 

 

“Christmas”

What began with the idea of the Christmas Truce – that unofficial ceasefire between soldiers at Christmas 1914 – became an exploration of the present day for Florian Tschurtschenthaler. He has carved three wooden figures: two soldiers facing each other in no man's land, and a sniper who pauses up on Capuchin Hill. The figures stand far apart; through telescopes, visitors draw the figure opposite them closer – exactly the kind of zooming in that the work is about. Christmas tells of the moment when the enemy becomes a human being again: the two soldiers suddenly look each other in the eye and recognise skin, a racing pulse, the same doubts, a human life. The sniper, too, comes to understand what kind of machine war has turned him into; his head buries itself in his helmet. Florian is interested in how dehumanisation works: the enemy must first be turned into a threat before one can shoot at him – a mechanism that has long since ceased to operate only in war, but everywhere that a human being is reduced to performance and surface.

Instagram Florian Tschurtschenthaler