empathy

A Heavy Head

The Berliner Liste, an art fair focused on presenting contemporary art, is set to take place at MUMA during Berlin Art Week in September. For the past weeks, we’ve had our readers create their own Berliner Liste of the top arty bars and the best flea markets in Berlin for the chance to win tickets to the fair. Now, we present a fresh face, or if you will, a heavy head, to show the kind of artwork that will be on display at Berliner Liste. We interviewed the Italy-based artist Ivan Lardscheider to find out more about his sculptures with their characteristic larger than life heads. What inspired him to go in this direction and how long does it take to create these works? Ivan explains the metaphysical symbolism behind his work and his excitement for taking part in his first ever art fair in Berlin. 

BAPS: Where do you get inspiration for your sculptures?
IS: I gather the inspirations for my works from the world I observe, from the events happening around, and most importantly from looking at children at play.  When I observe the lives of kids I ask myself what do they think about us, the adults? What do they think of when they see this or that? Nowadays my thought process is more like it used to be when I was a kid. I go back to my childhood and then convey that in my sculptures.

BAPS: How long does it take you to finish a piece?
IS: That is really hard to tell because I need a long time to develop my ideas. For me the title is equally important as the work itself, that means that the title should describe the artwork in a way that doesn’t require further explanation. After that comes the preparation and carving or wood, which is a much quicker process, it takes around 2-3
weeks per sculpture.

BAPS: Many of your sculptures exaggerate certain body parts. Why have you
chosen to do that?
IS: My works have so called “heavy heads.” That means that I make the heads so big and heavy that the actual body is being lifted up in the air. This is how everyone looks at my sculptures. Children look at them from their perspective and see something funny and adults see them more ironically and more critically but everyone can relate to them.
People are all the equal and so are my sculptures. I don’t distinguish between man and woman, big and small, rich and poor. I believe that once we die and we go to heaven we are going to be equal and that God will not give advantages to the richer or the taller. The other quality of my work is the color. The sculptures are all white because it is the most neutral color and they have a little red dot in their eyes, which should remind us of the early childhood.

BAPS: Which artists have influenced your work?
IS: I don’t look at what other artists do. I don’t really know the history of art very well and I am not really interested in it. I know it and everyone who has ever seen my work knows that I am original in what I do. There has never been anyone else in the world to make sculptures the way I make them, which is with the unproportional and exaggerated body parts: hands, heads etc… This is why I can 100% honestly say that I am not influenced by anyone.

BAPS: You live and work in Italy’s Süd Tirol, correct? What is it like to live and work there?
IS: Yes I live in Sud Tirol, a wonderful area, characterized mostly by tourism and where everything concentrates around skiing in winter and hiking in sommer. The good thing about the place is that you can work here in peace and quiet but the downside is that you are far away from any big cities and the connections to them are not great.

BAPS: What are your expectations for the Berliner Liste?
IS: I expect an awful lot from the Berliner Liste, mostly because this is my first time I participate in an art fair in Germany and I have never before worked with German art galleries this closely. I hope I can take that big of a leap. Up until now I have mostly worked with Italian galleries. Also I created some brand new artworks just for the Berliner Liste.

MUMA Berliner Liste Contemporary Art Fair, September 13th-16th 2012: 1-9pm.

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