Peter Rosenzweig

About me

Born in Berlin in 1957, I studied 4 years philosophy, religious science and psychology at the Free University Berlin from 1976 onwards.
Biking and sailing through many European countries, I came to Italy for the first time at the age of nineteen. At a studio in Pietrasanta I met Henry Moore as well as other sculptors and these personal encounters triggered my future artistic path.
After two years of internships in various studios in Pietrasanta, I studied Sculpture at the State Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara from 1983 to 1985. 
From 1981 to 2000 I lived and worked in Azzano and Piano di Mommio.

Since 2000 I have been living Italy and in Berlin. In 2003 I started giving marble sculpting courses in Berlin. After collaborating at the studio workshop of the socio-cultural location of Pfefferberg (2002-2007, Prenzlauer Berg district) I had another studio at the artists’ courtyard Weissensee (2008-2012) and than a studio at Leberstrasse in Berlin Schöneberg (2013-2014).

My new studio at Berlin-Kreuzberg is located in the Kreuzbergstrasse 9 which I share with my wife Katrin Pfister-Rosenzweig.

Sculptures

Influenced by the traditional Italian statuary, most of my works are made of classical material such as plaster, bronze or marble.

My themes are inspired by the method of “direct carving”, where the final form evolves through the process of carving with respect to the nature of the material.

In the majority of cases I do not start my sculptures with a model but take the inspiration from the form of the stone. My themes do not follow a given canon. They vary and are an expression of my attitude to life.

Campo dell'Altissimo

In 1981, I started Campo dell’ Altissimo, the Summer School of sculpting, drawing and painting in Azzano. Today, Campo dell’ Altissimo is the largest and oldest private sculpting school in Italy. Every year several hundred people come to this place close to the famous quarries of Carrara to find their artistic expression in sculpting.

Performances

My work as a performer started during my studies in Carrara in 1984. First, I collected traces in various cities of Tuscany and in West Berlin. From these I created hundreds of clay imprints, which were later converted into lasting plaster reliefs. In the beginning, the search for traces itself was a performance. Since then, I have been using sculptured details and fragments of architectural decorations for my multimedia-based performances. 

Since 1996, my performance work has led to the joint work of the group "Darwin" with Axel Kreiser and Christof Zürn.
Click here for a video about the performance.