DUST, SWEAT AND GRAPHITE
Raised by rocks, woken up from permafrost, the big mystery of Alps, Bolzano Boy. The giant with charcoal feet, also known as Moriz Oberberger, is a wild child found in 1987. That day was dark in the sky, clouds made of dust, sweat, and graphite. A total eclipse of the sun followed by a flash of lightning that struck him and transferred a full stack of energy. You could tell because of his charred feet, and a rapid eye movement, awake and dreaming, a sign of inner fire, the clear witnessing of every second of his time.
With humble means —driven by an urge to collect and to transform, he establishes daily routines that skip sleep and manifold into impulsive reflections of ordinary experiences. Innate to non-verbal visual languages and gibberish communication, when he was found his only spoken words were “production, production, production”, a sequence repeated in four different languages, German, Italian, English, and Spanish.
Around deadlines, inside a storm surrounded by trees, he turns pencil. A force of nature with pine arms, and bones of graphite, lights up after a thunder. Then he moves, perennial, with loud steps that get closer, while his shadow gets bigger, and become graceful traces on paper, black as activated charcoal, filtering the very light out of the air. His instinct absorbs every input that can perceive through the dense smoke to feed his factory, which cools down with the heavy rain and delivers clear flows of progressive storytelling. An endless torrent and meditative workflow where he reflects on the value of time, action, and the connections found in all series of events.
SELECTED CLIENTS
Action Grub, Amsterdam Academie van Bouwkunst, Bernisches Historisches Museum, Blitz Klub Munich, Chi Thu Restaurant, Edition Ventile, Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam, ISIA Urbino, Monticule Festival, Urbane Liga, SP Schweiz, SKKG, Squama Recordings, ZHdK
EXHIBITIONS
2021
Slice of ham spinning around arm, coin landing in hand, feet way too big
Solo exhibition
Fanfare, Amsterdam, Netherlands
12,13 November
Gran Salón México 2021
Contemporary Illustration Fair
Guanajuato 227, col. Roma de 11, Mexico City
5,6,7 November
2020
Woven Identities
Group exhibition, Glue Festival
Stadssalon Amsterdam, Netherlands
18,19,20 September
2019
Post Post
Solo exhibition
Box Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem, Netherlands
16 May
Nonoki @ LAABF'19
Los Angeles Art Book Fair installation
Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, US
11, 12, 13, 14 April
Nonoki
Interactive installation and presentation
Museo Universitario Del Chopo, Mexico City, MX
24, 25 April
2018
The Opening & Closing Reception
Sitterwerk Kunstbibliothek, St. Gallen, CH
4th of May
Boiling Room for Hot Reading
Printed Matter NYABF '18
Boiler Room, MoMA PS1, New York City, US
21, 22, 23 September
While I was filling the container with water…
Billboard
019 Ghent
October
2017
Fruits of Fraud
Werkplaats Typografie
Boiler Room, MoMA PS1, New York City, US
22, 23, 24 September
CONTACT
Ingenieur Jakoba Mulderplein 72
1018 MZ Amsterdam
hello@moriz.work
+31 6 19 02 60 71
Instagram: @morizoberberger
CREDITS
Text: dzzz99
Code: Vera van de Seyp
Typeface: Vanilla by Scott vander Zee
Funded by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
