Dilitz Mario

The Austrian sculptor Mario Dilitz was born in Innsbruck in 1973. He completed his artistic education at the College for Wood Sculptors in Ortisei, Italy. Dilitz has been working as a freelance artist since 2004. Mario Dilitz's works in wood and bronze are instantly recognisable due to their exceptionally precise craftsmanship. His figures are mostly characterised by clear sculptural lines and a static pose, primarily designed for a frontal view. Dilitz's sculptures are youthful in character in their physique and facial features are created in a purely stylised form. Despite their distanced and reserved pose, together with an almost auratic aura, the figures depicted in the Austrian's sculptures appear vulnerable and animated in a seemingly strange, always introspective way. The vulnerability of the individual and of society is then also manifested in the attributes of the individual figures. While one figure holds a soft toy, another wears oversized boxing gloves, while the wings of a bomber seem to unfurl on the back of a third figure. In this way, Dilitz succeeds in addressing existential questions of existence and socially critical aspects in equal measure and processing them artistically. With his sculptures, Mario Dilitz thus opens up a discursive intellectual space, but without giving in to the temptation to fill it with the answers to the questions that his works raise in the viewer.

Quote

«I see my sculptures as a kind of projection surface for the viewer, perhaps even a mirror in a way. That is why I endeavour to achieve as neutral a facial expression as possible in my sculptures.  When the viewer engages with the artwork, they will interpret it from their very own, current emotional and intellectual point of view. It thus becomes their own work.»