Michael Höpfner
Museo Nazionale della Montagna, Italy
1 November 2023 – 31 March 2024
Ecophilia is a term that refers to the love of nature, and ecophiles strive to foster a sense of empathy and bond with the environment. The Museo Nazionale della Montagna in Turin, northern Italy, aims to make ecophiles out of all of us, conceiving and presenting exhibitions that question humankind's approach to nature in response to contemporary environmental challenges.
For their exhibition opening in autumn 2023, Michael Höpfner and Polish-born artist Magda Drozd will jointly produce an audio-visual installation that documents their crossing of the Piedmont Alps to the Mediterranean. As with any form of pilgrimage, their focus was on the journey itself rather than the destination. Drawings and photographs documented the journey, along with audio recordings that captured specific sounds encountered en route, such as the bells of passing goats and the rhythm of Höpfner’s breathing and footsteps along the walk. The resulting installation has both hope and melancholy embedded within it; hope in the alluring, meditative mood of the work, melancholy as the viewer is left to ponder the extent to which these sounds and landscapes will continue to exist in the future.
The artistic practice of Michael Höpfner (born 1972 in Krems, Austria) often involves walks through landscapes that he documents in photographs, drawings and handwritten notes. Höpfner understands these journeys as a search for meaning behind mankind’s relationship with nature, and his works tell stories of silence and loneliness, as well as other physical and mental experiences within the great outdoors. He has exhibited his work at various institutions including Kunsthaus Wien, Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, and Kunsthalle St. Gallen.
