The NTU Center for the Arts joined hands with Gallery Sun to bring an exhibition of works by the Italian sculptor Aron Demetz to the NTU campus. Several of his works were displayed at the Odeum on March 10 while a larger exhibition of his sculptures was held at the College of Social Sciences from March 10 to April 30. The exhibition was one of the many activities and events heldin connection with this year’s NTU Azalea Festival, which ran for the entire month of March.

Demetz was born in 1972 in Vipiteno, a small town in Northern Italy renowned for its ancient tradition of religious wood carving. He studiedat the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg in Germany under Prof. Christian Höpfner. The sculptor gained international recognition for his exhibition in the Italian Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.

Demetz repeatedly examines and reflects on the relationship between humans and nature. He has gradually moved beyond thereceived notion of absolute independence in traditional Western culture and focused instead on the idea of relative relationship between the internal and external, in his quest to interpret the essence of life. Demetz works with wood as his primary material, drawing upon its textures and special characteristics as well as how it transforms through a variety of natural processes.

Demetz’s sculptures are displayed in museums and fine art galleries throughout Europe, and have been exhibited and collected here in Taiwan, as well.