Adolf Vallazza

Val Gardena, in South Tyrol, is universally celebrated for the fantastic Dolomite scenery, the multiplicity of ski slopes, the pleasant summer and winter holidays, but also for its strong Latin identity and its centuries-old artisan tradition of wood carving . Toys, church statues, often monumental, ornate objects, coming out of the Gardena workshops - from the baroque epic to today's utilitarianism - are found all over the world, not only in the central-eastern Alpine area. Investigating, in order to understand it, the soul of this valley through the particular environment, the geographical and human history, the versatility of the expressions of the small and large arts, exquisitely of mountain peasant origin, is an ambitious undertaking, especially difficult when one tries to propose a summary of why and how the intelligent resourcefulness of the Gardena people has made itself known and appreciated in a much broader horizon than the Alpine one. In the case of this book, the Author has attempted to "explain", telling, as a history writer, the meaning of the Gardena story through the figure and work of a contemporary artist, who was born and lives in his valley. This is Adolf Vallazza, sculptor and painter as were his father, his father's father, his grandfather Josef Moroder Lusenberg whose pictorial (and sculptural) work is re-evaluated today; and as are his brothers and his own children. Adolf Vallazza was able to impulsively translate from the valley's generational artistic-craft tradition a modulation of pure, original, completely new art. Yet his "old woods" contain the assonance and entirety of the Gardena soul mentioned above.