Klosters is home to an astonishing number of talented artists, including Markus Dönier, who despite his full-time job still finds the time to create imaginative creations from beautiful woods. Now he is mounting his next exhibition at the KULTURBOX on Bahnhofstrasse.
.
Born in Klosters, Markus Dönier found wood a fascinating material even as a young boy. He inherited his love of woodworking from his father, but was not allowed to use his father's lathe because it was too dangerous. As a teenager, he then completed an apprenticeship in Zurich, then left Switzerland and was active in the catering industry in Seattle, USA, for 25 years until the mountains of Graubünden lured him back to Klosters in 2015. During his time in the USA, he continued to work with wood creations and built up a useful collection of special tools, which he eventually brought back to Klosters, as well as many of the objects he made. In 2016, Markus invested in a special lathe from Germany and set up a workshop in a beautiful old barn, where he can now work undisturbed - although it gets quite cold there in winter.
.
Markus Dönier spends the working day in nature, where he is visually inspired by the shapes and different woods. For his creations, he uses almost exclusively wood from the region and most of it finds its way to him through natural sources such as storm damage, avalanches and the like. He leaves his objects in as natural a state as the raw material allows, then shapes and cuts to bring out the natural beauty of each piece. He often takes on blocks of wood that others would not work on, either because of imperfections in the material or unusual and special grains in which he sees a natural beauty. He works with maple, robinia, cherry, Swiss stone pine and beech, and time and again with pieces with special discolouration caused by fungi. Although this discolouration mainly occurs in dead trees, it can also occur in living trees under stress. Loss of weight and strength of the wood are the consequences, the unique discolourations and patterns are sought after by woodworkers and the visual effect is unique.
.
For Markus Dönier, every work of art is a unique piece and often the result is not what he actually intended with the piece - exciting in his eyes, because in this way a synthesis is created between what is present in the wood and the idea of what he originally wanted to make out of it. The wooden objects are only treated with beeswax, which he applies on the lathe with the help of the resulting frictional heat. In this way, his wooden pieces remain quasi living objects that have to be touched to feel it.