Art is just a place too

Who is right here? The art, the place, the initiators, the people? Timian Hops has directed a film about an art project in Val Badia (Italian for Gadertal) in South Tyrol. The film is not so much about the artworks themselves, but more about the people living there and how they deal with the presence of contemporary sculptures and installations that they (maybe) don’t actually need.

San Martino in Badia (Italian for Sankt Martin in Thurn) is located centrally within the valley, with the Kronplatz right in front and the cableways, attractions and all the flourishing business next to it. The Kronplatz is one of the hot spots of South Tyrol’s winter tourism frenzy. Overtourism? Yes – but: We are talking about 1.8 million overnight stays per year and a turnover of more than 250 million euros. And who is to complain about that? When it comes to marketing tourism, the Kronplatz is the go-to place for promoting and advertising the whole region. The whole region? Not really. Further back in San Martino, life is calm and quiet. It’s too calm, even! This is what Michael Moling, head of a local marketing and communications agency, must have thought. He initiated SMACH, short for “San Martin Art, Culture and Heritage” – an  art biennale that has been taking place since 2012 in Val Badia between Badia and San Vigilio di Marebbe (Italian for St. Vigil in Enneberg).  The idea behind this exhibition, which is not exactly barrier-free, was to present art embedded in the landscape of the Dolomites in South Tyrol. I mean, who would hike for 65 kilometres up the mountains, climbing at least 500 metres in altitude, just to see art?

Timian Hopf is born in Allgäu, a region of Germany well known for its high mountains. In summer 2023, he and cameraman Toni Bihler followed the artists chosen by the biennale jury across Val Badia to capture their, sometimes, challenging work. The film “Elevated Art - Wer Kunst auf die Berge stellt” is a 74-minute documentary and has been showing in cinemas across Germany since July 2025. The film’s title is deliberately chosen to play with the ambiguity of the word “elevated”. Is art “elevated”, or is it “elevating”? In Hopf’s film, however, the symbiotic relationship between art and landscape, as sought by the initiators of SMACH, tends to play a minor role. The main characters are the people who have to live with the art. Some of them feel they have been denied the right to have a say, are against or in favour of more tourism, or complain about wasted money (“The art of Michelangelo, da Vinci and van Gogh – this you can at least understand.”) Others speak of a “disruption of the landscape”. And again others, particularly the SMACH-initiators, are committed and defend the project. The film does not take sides – it lets both camps have their say and get their message across equally. Tilman Hopf and his cameraman Toni Bihler display the arguments between the two groups as if they were producing a feature film or a news story.

The film shows the artists and the challenges they face when trying to set up their thought-up artworks in the free and sometimes reluctant and adverse nature. Some fail because of their own ideas (“Air is cheaper than helium.”), while others run out of physical endurance (“We need to rest now.”). The film shows the people who struggle with this (art) project, as well as the people who started it and who do everything in their power to make sure the artists can put their ideas into practice as planned. If needed, even Michael Moling, the SMACH-boss, will personally repair an empty water hose.  There is no such thing as “that’s not possible”. South Tyrolean legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner tries his hand at being an art interpreter and clears things up: “Every artist has to be taken seriously, even if they leave waste behind.”

These artworks are not exhibited in a White Cube, and not everyone necessarily needs to understand why a “stadl” (eng. barn) has to be transformed into a hot-air balloon using a huge amount of effort, ropes, rods and poles. Well-executed artworks evoke and trigger something in the observer. But what if they don’t? Then they are not well executed.

Timian Hopf’s film doesn’t pass judgement, but instead impartially shows what happens when new ideas meet traditional structures and established habits. The film premiered in July in Germany as part of a Sculpture Network Dialogue.

“Experience Dolomites: Art in the Mountains”: Timian Hopf is organising a trip to Brixen/Bressanone and St. Martin in Thurn/San Martino in Badia for Sculpture Network from 11 to 14 September 2025. The art trip is fully booked, but registrations for the waiting list are still possible.

Written by Willy Hafner in German

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