South Tyrolean artist, Klaus Pobitzer, studied under Gunther Damisch and Michelangelo Pistoletto at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1995 to 2000. His art is based on digital drawings of mostly full-length portraits or group photos, which are scaled up to a height of 30 metres for the installations. Durst Group has engaged the renowned artist as ‘Artist in Residence 2024’. The artist will be inspired by the Durst Group headquarters in Brixen to create artistic works inside and outside the venue.
One of the first fruits of the collaboration is the installation ‘Inside-Out’. This focuses on Durst Group employees, whom the artist shows in large format individual and group portraits, as well as technical details of the printing systems produced. Following the exhibition, the hundreds of square metres of installations on the façade of the Durst headquarters will be processed into recycled bags and auctioned off as unique pieces for a good cause.
Pobitzer became known to a wide audience through projects in the field of urban public spaces, including in Palermo, Wrocław (Poland), Sorrento (near Naples), Innsbruck, Milan, Balaklava (Crimea/Ukraine) and Busan (Korea), as well as through his exhibitions in Ghent, New York, Sapporo, Mexico City and Vienna.
‘The Durst HQ is an iconic and futuristic building and testifies to the importance of the company in digital printing technology,’ said Klaus Pobitzer, explaining the art project. ‘But hardly anyone in the region actually knows what is behind the ‘world’s leading technology manufacturer’. ‘Inside-Out’ reveals the secret and brings the company’s greatest assets, its employees and technology, to the outside world.’
Christoph Gamper, CEO and co-owner of the Durst Group said, ‘We are delighted that we have been able to win over a great artist like Pobitzer for this collaboration. His large-scale installations in public spaces, human-computer interaction, design and architecture projects – all of these are also Durst Group-specific themes. What’s more, Pobitzer and I are connected by Vinschgau as our home, our international experiences and ‘coming home’ virtually and in reality to South Tyrol.’
The Durst Group plans to continue its collaboration with the artist at its site in Lienz. The Durst Austria branch is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
INDUSTRIAL INKJET SPECIALISTS
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