Le Stanze del Vetro

LE STANZE DEL VETRO

INDEX

ABOUT LE STANZE DEL VETRO

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PAST EXHIBITIONS TOMASO BUZZI AT VENINI GLASS TEA HOUSE ‘MONDRIAN’ I Santillana Napoleone Martinuzzi. Venini 1925-1931 Fragile?

Carlo Scarpa. Venini 1932 -1947

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UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS GLASS FROM FINLAND IN THE BISCHOFBERGER COLLECTION FULVIO BIANCONI AT VENINI

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PUBLICATIONS

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CONTACT INFORMATION

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Le Stanze del Vetro A cultural project and an exhibition space dedicated to the study and appreciation of modern and contemporary glass

Le Stanze del Vetro is a cultural project and a permanent exhibition space located on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Founded in the summer of 2012 from the collaboration between Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Pentagram Stiftung it is dedicated to the study and display of modern and contemporary forms of glassmaking.

The project aims to bring the medium of glass back to the centre of attention of the international art scene, in order to illustrate the considerable potential of this material.

The cultural initiatives of Le Stanze del Vetro are dedicated both to promote contemporary artists, who have used glass as an original means of expression and as a medium for their creative vision, and to highlight and study the leading producers and major collections of glass worldwide.

For this reason, every year until 2021, two exhibitions will be staged on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

The first in spring, dedicated to the use of glass in the fields of art and design of the 20th and 21st century; the second, in autumn, dedicated to the talented designers who created objects for the Venini glassware company in the 20th Century. These exhibition projects have been made possible thanks to an agreement with the Venini company that grants access to its archive for consultation. Venini’s archive includes original documents, photographs, drawings and designs dating back to 1921. Available for the first time in its

entirety, the archive will contribute to the construction of an unprecedented account narrating a significant chapter of the history of glassmaking in the last century. Parallel to the exhibition program, Le Stanze del Vetro holds a series of special projects, often sitespecific, where contemporary artists (Swiss artist Not Vital in 2013, and Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto in 2014) are invited to consider and create a work using glass as an artistic medium, whether manufactured or produced by Venetian artisans or not. In addition to their installation, the artists are offered the opportunity to create a unique art object made of glass from Murano. Sold in limited edition at the bookshop of Le Stanze del Vetro, the profit from these pieces helps to promote the activities organised by the institution. The cultural project of Le Stanze del Vetro also includes a Study Centre and a general Archive of Venetian Glass dedicated to the research and study of glass. The center offers scholarships for researchers interested in the topic, and organizes a range of seminars, conferences and workshops for scholars and artists interested in the history, technology and development of the art of glassmaking.

Le Stanze del Vetro adopts the Anglo-Saxon cultural model of free access to exhibition spaces, supporting the idea that cultural heritage belongs to the community. This is why the admission to exhibitions, tours, and educational services is offered free of charge.

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Fondazione Giorgio Cini Pentagram Stiftung Le Stanze del Vetro is a joint initiative to promote 20th-century Glass

Vittorio Cini established the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, a non-profit cultural institution based in Venice (Italy), in memory of his son Giorgio, with the aim of restoring the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore (devastated after 150 years of military occupation) and of creating an international cultural centre that would re-integrate the Island into the life of Venice. In its 60 years of existence, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini has encouraged the creation and development of educational, social, cultural and artistic institutions in its surrounding territory.

The importance of the Foundation is substantiated by the numerous events it has promoted and hosted, a rich cultural patrimony preserved on the Island (ancient books, drawings, tapestries, paintings and sculptures), an archive, and since 1984, the Gallery of Palazzo Cini at San Vio (accommodating a collection of paintings from Tuscany and Ferrara). Alongside its commitment to cultural research, and conferences and seminars, the Foundation hosts masterpieces by the architects Andrea Palladio and Baldassarre Longhena on its grounds. The role of the Giorgio Cini Foundation is attested by the many highly esteemed intellectuals, artists, politicians and economists who have been involved in its programs, and by the recollections of scholars and guests who have spent time on the Island. Furthermore, the Foundation hosts the International Center for the Study of Italian Culture, named after Vittore Branca. Opened in 2010, the Branca Center is a new residential resource for Humanities’ studies where young researchers and expert scholars can stay while working in the Foundation and Venetian libraries.

Pentagram Stiftung is a Swiss private foundation established in 2011 and based in Chur (Switzerland).

Its mission is to study and promote art and design of the 20th and 21st century that feature glass as their main medium.

Pentagram Stiftung aims to reappraise the importance of glass in the art and history of Venice, as well as that of high-standard and innovative glass-making in the fields of design and contemporary art.

Alongside the activities organised within Le Stanze del Vetro, Pentagram Stiftung is committed to the promotion of contemporary glassmakers.

Notable recent examples are the exhibition In Grimani: Ritsue Mishima Glass Works (30th May – 29th September 2013), a collateral event to the 55th Venice Art Biennale displayed in the Museum of Palazzo Grimani; and that of Osmosi (31st of May – 28th July 2013) conceived by the French Designer Emmanuel Babled – who designed a collection of furniture, lamps and vases made of glass and marble – which was organised with the Foundation’s help at Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti on the occasion of the same Biennale.

700 Snowballs (1st of June - 29th of September 2013), a site specific installation designed by the Swiss artist Not Vital and staged on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, was composed of 700 spheres of glass which, incredibly similar to snowballs suspended in the air, were each individually hand blown by the masters of Vetreria Pino Signoretto on the island of Murano.

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Tomaso Buzzi at Venini An exhibition that celebrates the Italian taste of the 1930s and 1940s in the glass works designed by the renowned Milanese architect

The architect Tomaso Buzzi was a lively protagonist of the so-called ‘Novecento Milanese’. He was friends with Gio Ponti – with whom he collaborated – and partner of ‘Il Labirinto’, a group that included architects and entrepreneurs such as Gio Ponti, Michele Marelli and Paolo Venini. Together with Gio Ponti, Tomaso Buzzi became one of the most important creators of the 1930s and 1940s, initiating new standards that were extensively imitated in the years that followed.

He was a cultured architect, a curious designer, a sophisticated interior designer, as well as contributor to the magazine Domus.

Between 1932 and 1933, Buzzi began a fruitful collaboration with the Venini glassware company, which would continue, albeit episodically, in later years. The architect’s creative contribution was evident both in the glass forms and in their innovative manufacturing technique. When he arrived at the Venini company in Murano, in 1932, he brought with him a remarkable cultural baggage and a thorough knowledge of ancient art, in particular of the Etruscan period, where he looked for inspiration with the aim of creating new and original artefacts. This was achieved

through the experimentation with a new glass material, the ‘vetro incamiciato’, with several layers of color and gold leaf.

This technique radically changed the appearance of the glass produced at Venini, contributing to the drive for innovation of the Murano-based glassware company.

The exhibition Tomaso Buzzi at Venini, curated

by Marino Barovier, retraced this brief but rich collaboration, recorded not only through the artist’s works that were selected and the original design drawings provided by the Venini archive, but also through previously unreleased projects held in the Scarzuola, Buzzi’s own house in central Italy.

Date: from 14/09/2014 to 11/01/2015 Curated by Marino Barovier Catalogue edited by Marino Barovier with Carla Sonego, published by Skira for Le Stanze del Vetro 3

Glass Tea House Mondrian The first architectural project by Hiroshi Sugimoto in Venice

Date: from 06/06/2014 extended to 30/11/2015

The ‘Glass Tea House Mondrian’ is a temporary pavilion designed by the Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto as part of the activities of Le Stanze del Vetro.

Sugimoto, known worldwide for his black-and-white photographs, has designed, for the first time ever, an architectural building in the city of Venice.

The ‘Glass Tea House Mondrian’ is inspired by the Japanese tradition of the tea ceremony.

The Pavilion consists of two main elements: an open-air landscape and an enclosed glass cube.

The landscape follows a path along a reflecting pool leading the visitor to the glass cube inside which the traditional Japanese tea ceremony will be performed.

The glass cube will host two visitors at a time together with the tea master, while the rest of the spectators can watch the ceremony from outside the tea house.

The tea utensils used for the ceremony are designed

by Hiroshi Sugimoto especially for the ‘Glass Tea House Mondrian’ and fabricated by traditional artisans from Kyoto.

The ‘Glass Tea House Mondrian’ is an innovative project as it offers a space in which to present and experience architecture, a place where the Pavilion itself becomes the exhibition. It is an event which allows the artist to freely suggest a theme and a project, open to the possibility of experimenting with the setting, shapes, building techniques and innovative materials. Within the settings of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore the ‘Glass Tea House Mondrian’ acquires a symbolic value,

encouraging visitors to freely interact with the site, and requiring them to find the right balance between the artifices of architecture and the natural environment that surrounds it.

The ‘Glass Tea House Mondrian’ creates a strong dialogue between interior and exterior, nature and artifice, lightness and heaviness, and water and soil.

These bonds are created by the use of Japanese cedar wood for the external fence, the use of Venetian mosaics for the reflecting pool, and glass for the tea house, in which the visitor can experience the fusion of Japanese tradition and modern technology.

This tea house made of glass was designed by Hiroshi Sugimoto for Le Stanze del Vetro with the support of Sumitomo Forestry Co. Ltd., Fondazione Bisazza and in cooperation with Asahi Building-Wall Co. Ltd. The external cedar wood fence, built by Sumitomo Forestry, is inspired by the Ise-shrine in Mie prefecture (Japan). Hiroshi Sugimoto and Sumitomo Forestry chose to use cedar wood from the Tohoku region to help reconstruct the areas devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

A long water basin covered in mosaic tiles is the other key element of the design and accompanies the visitor to the focal point of the pavilion: the tea house. The mosaic water basin was built with the support of Fondazione Bisazza. Furthermore, special thanks go to Cattaruzza Millosevich Architetti Associati for following every step of the planning and realisation of this project.

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I Santillana An exhibition conceived in the form of a dialogue between the poetics of two artists, brother and sister

Date: from 06/04/2014 to 03/08/2015 Conceived by Martin Bethenod Catalogue by Skira for Le Stanze del Vetro The exhibition will be shown at the MAK in Vienna from 18/11/2014 to 08/02/2015 The exhibition will be shown at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK from 01/05/2015 to 06/09/2015

The exhibition, conceived as the result of a series of conversations and meetings between the artists and Martin Bethenod, explores another chapter in the history of contemporary glass, in line with the mission of Le Stanze del Vetro. By comparing the works of the Santillana siblings, descendants of the Venini glassware dynasty established by Paolo Venini, the exhibition explores the potential and the many variations of glass as medium and material, particularly through its sculptural nature.

The show was presented in the eight rooms that compose the exhibition space of Le Stanze del Vetro, in an innovative staging created by the artists in collaboration with Martin Bethenod. The central axis of the exhibition is the main corridor, renamed ‘La Rue’ for the occasion, and conceived as a biographical and sentimental narrative where the independent paths that Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana took meet to debate and rediscover the traits of a creative vision, set apart, and yet intertwined.

Therefore, ‘La Rue’ served as a meeting point between Laura and Alessandro’s universes, never insisting on their opposition, but playing instead, in an almost musical fashion, with contrasting effects, antiphonies and parallels, from one room to the next.

As Martin Bethenod stated: ‘Arranged in vitrines and on shelves, following a logic of recollection and free association, these pieces are from diverse periods (essentially from the 1980s to the present) but above all of widely varying formal status (fully realised works, trial models or prototypes, utilitarian objects, souvenirs,

sources of inspiration, drawings, photographs…), the whole tracing a type of shifting double portrait of the two artists. This central ‘main street’ fore-fronting the dynamic registers of temporality, confrontation between the two artists, differing status of the objects, the importance of context and personal history, is the backbone of the exhibition, enriching it throughout’.

None of the approximately 170 items exhibited – some of which created for the occasion – was the result of a four-handed work, but each individually investigated the creative universe of the two artists.

For this reason each gallery was dedicated to the work of a single artist, with the exception of two rooms: the first, which opened the exhibition, was arranged as an encounter between an important selection from Laura’s Heads series (2009 to 2013) and a previously undisplayed diptych (2013) by Alessandro; and the largest room, which was the climax of our itinerary, featured a dialogue between two great collections of new works, conceived specifically for this exhibition, which interrogated the concept of landscape, one through the exaltation of colour, the other through its elimination.

In this way the show I Santillana put forward an exhibition narrative enhanced by the display and visual confrontation of the works. Side by side the creative and practical differences between Laura and Alessandro’s work presented to the viewer glimpses of the signs of shared memories and experiences, ‘in a whole – as Bethenod has said – that traces a sort of double portrait in motion of the two artists’.

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Napoleone Martinuzzi.

Venini 1925-1931 The second exhibition in the series on the history of the Venini glassmaking company

The exhibition Napoleone Martinuzzi. Venini 1925-1931, curated by Marino Barovier, chronologically retraced the entire production of the Murano-born sculptor during the years he spent working with Paolo Venini as the Artistic Director of the homonymous glassware company. Thanks to the analysis and crossreferencing of various documentary sources (photos, catalogues, furnace drawings) and the collaboration with museums, institutions and collectors, the exhibition featured about 200 works of art, many of which were rare pieces which were shown at major international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and the Monza Triennale between 1926 and 1930: from the elegant transparent blown glass to the pulegosi (a semi-opaque or translucent glass with a rough surface of tiny bubbles), the striking aquariums and the brightly coloured velato vases; the cacti and the colourful bestiary. Moreover, to illustrate the bond between the sculptor and Gabriele d’Annunzio, the exhibition featured the recreation of one of the rooms of the Vittoriale, set up by stage-designer Pier Luigi Pizzi, containing some of the most important works that Martinuzzi designed for the poet.

In 1925 the Murano-born sculptor Napoleone Martinuzzi (1892-1977) entered into a partnership with Paolo Venini. He held the post of Artistic Director of VSM Venini & C. until 1931, where he distinguished himself as a refined interpreter of the fashion of his time between Art Deco and Novecentismo. For VSM Venini & C. Martinuzzi designed elegant blown glass works, along with others, featuring an unprecedent matte texture; he designed pulegoso glass, with dense bubbles, and opaque glass with intense and compact colors. His repertoire included vases, bowls, lamps, as well as unique decorative items such as fruit, animals and cacti, some of which on a monumental scale.

Date: from 08/09/2013 to 06/01/2014 Curated by Marino Barovier Catalogue by Skira for Le Stanze del Vetro 6

Fragile?

The exhibition displayed the creations of some of the most interesting artists of our time, who used glass with diverse and contrasting intentions

The exhibition, curated by Mario Codognato, consisted of works by some of the most interesting international artists of our time who have experimented with industrial and found glass - from Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys, to Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst, Giovanni Anselmo and Jannis Kounellis, to name a few. This exhibition was part of Le Stanze del Vetro project, a joint collaboration between Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Pentagram Stiftung, developed with the aim of promoting the appreciation of and research in glass made in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the context of Venetian glassmaking and its peculiar artisan connotations, FRAGILE? aimed at taking a different, yet equally important, aspect into account, namely the use of glass as a found object, with specific metaphorical and linguistic features.

Instead of precision or originality in design, other aspects were sought, such as symbolic transparency, fragility and resistance, imprecision and smoothness, along with the construction of elements that draw inspiration from reality and contemporary artistic language.

‘In the 20th century, through the historical avantgardes, visual arts cease to be a sole mimesis of reality through painting and sculpture’ - stated curator Mario

Codognato. ‘By using objects and materials taken from the real world and industrial production, a new metaphoric, yet tautologically concrete, dimension is born. Glass, thanks to its widespread use in architecture and its double nature of transparent medium and at the same time barrier, becomes a new linguistic tool through which to create images’.

FRAGILE? displayed the creations of some of the most interesting artists of our time, who used glass with diverse and contrasting intentions: from the provoking gesture of Marcel Duchamp of shutting the air of Paris in a transparent ampoule, to the tragic lyricism of Joseph Beuys’s glass fragments as a witness to the ferociousness of earthquakes, from the transformation of industrial objects into poetical individualities by Luciano Fabro to the ironic explosion of car windscreens in Pipilotti Rist’s video.

Seen as a whole, the works and artists exhibited in FRAGILE? translated the infinite potentialities of glass into unprecedented dialectics which inevitably have to do with our daily existence, as a constitutive element of contemporary artistic language.

Date: from 08/04/2013 to 28/07/2013 Curated by Mario Codognato Catalogue by Skira for Le Stanze del Vetro

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Carlo Scarpa.

Venini 1932 -1947 The first public event of Le Stanze del Vetro

The exhibition Carlo Scarpa. Venini 1932–1947 featured a selection of over 300 works designed by the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa in the years when he was the Artistic Director of the Venini Glassworks (1932-1947); some works were shown for the first time and many are from major world public and private collections.

The works were divided into approximately thirty types according to execution techniques and glass textures (from sommerso to murrine romane, corrosi and a pennellate glass). The works on show also included prototypes, one-off items, original drawings and designs, period photographs and archive documents.

The exhibition explored the significance and importance of Carlo Scarpa’s glass design in his overall work.

During his Murano period, Scarpa further developed his interests in experimentation and craftsmanship and the show thus provided a great opportunity to compare his work as a glass and furniture designer with his work as an architect. The exhibition itinerary

included a video room showing two documentary films on the relationship between the Venini glass works and Carlo Scarpa. The films were produced by Pentagram Stiftung and directed by Gian Luigi Calderone, who had previously made Casa Venini, a film about the history of the Venini-Santillana family. The first film, a fiftyminute documentary entitled A Carlo Scarpa e ai suoi infiniti possibili (1984), shows images of glass objects designed by Carlo Scarpa. The images are accompanied by the music of Luigi Nono, composed in 1984 with the same title to commemorate his friend. In the film the musicologist Stefano Bassanese illustrates the structure of the music and the affinities between the designer and the composer. A second documentary Carlo Scarpa, fuori dal paradiso (2012) describes Scarpa and his glass through personal accounts by those who knew him well, such as former students and, especially, his son Tobia. This one-hour film was shown twice a day and was on sale in the exhiition bookshop.

Date: from 29/08/2012 to 06/01/2013 Curated by Marino Barovier Catalogue by Skira for Le Stanze del Vetro The exhibition travelled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York from 05/11/2013 to 02/03/2014 8

Glass from Finland in the Bischofberger Collection Over 300 works celebrate the beauty of artistic glass in an exhibition featuring masterpieces by the most important Finnish designers of the 20th century.

This important exhibition features the best of Finnish and international design thanks to the unprecedented loan of over 300 glass works from the Bischofberger private collection. The beauty of artistic glass features masterpieces by the foremost 20th century Finnish designers: Aino and Alvar Aalto, Arttu Brummer, Kaj Franck, Göran Hongell, Gunnel Nyman, Timo Sarpaneva, Oiva Toikka and Tapio Wirkkala.

The exhibition will offer the public a unique opportunity to view, for the very first time, some very rare objects, often unique or early production pieces, which Bruno and Christina Bischofberger have collected with passion and insight over the past forty years. The uniqueness of these objects reveals the original creative approach of each artist or designer, and makes this collection of Finnish glass one of the most important in the world.

Thanks to a thorough documentation of the various historical periods, the works on display at the exhibition Glass from Finland in the Bischofberger Collection take the visitors from the crystal-clear and first colored glass works of the early Thirties to the more flamboyant and at times “psychedelic” production of the Seventies.

The creations by the sculptor and designer Tapio Wirkkala are particularly interesting, as in the case

of the series entitled Ultima Thule, in which glass jugs and vases appear like blocks of ice with dripping surfaces, producing an interplay of transparencies and reflections that are almost abstract: the bottle that was designed specifically for Finlandia Vodka, still in production today, remains one of the best and most famous pieces of the series.

This rich collection, curated by Kaisa Koivisto and Pekka Korvenmaa for Le Stanze del Vetro on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, brings to the public the greatest examples of a century-long glass production, with all its declinations and variations, in a celebration of a timeless design of the highest quality.

Whether the objects are fun, practical or simply decorative, all the works on display are the result of a creative force and a technical know-how that have their roots in ancient times but that have shown that the glass medium can be used in dynamic and original ways, producing shapes and objects that have rewritten the history of both Scandinavian and International design.

Date: from 13/04/2015 to 02/08/2015 Curated by Kaisa Koivisto and Pekka Korvenmaa Forthcoming: Catalogue by Skira for Le Stanze del Vetro 9

Fulvio Bianconi at Venini An exhibition that aims to show the fruitful experience that led to the creation of icons of Murano glassmaking

Date: from 13/09/2015 to 10/01/2016 Curated by Marino Barovier Catalogue by Skira for Le Stanze del Vetro

Fulvio Bianconi (1915-1996) was an extraordinary graphic artist and designer. He started a partnership with the Venini glassware company in the postwar period and created models with original shapes and a pronounced chromatic quality.

The exhibition Fulvio Bianconi at Venini aims to show the fruitful experience that led to the creation of evocative pieces of art. These objects sum up the ‘fabulous’ Fifties and became icons of the Murano glassmaking of that period.

Bianconi arrived in Murano in 1946 to study the art of glassmaking, after he was asked to design perfume bottles, and he established a special relationship with Paolo Venini, based on mutual respect and joint enthusiasm. This relationship brought him to put his mark on the production of the glassware company till the middle of the Fifties, and occasionally in the following decade.

Thanks to the documents kept in the Venini Archive and to the help of private collectors and Italian and international museums, the exhibition will present an articulated sequence of glass pieces, which obtained great success in important events such as the Venice Biennale and the Milan Triennale, but also in traveling exhibitions held in America and Europe during the Fifties. One example of this success was the series entitled Maschere italiane (Italian masks), comprising amusing and ironic figures in polychrome glass inspired by the ‘Commedia dell’arte’, which were presented at the Venice Biennale in 1948. This type of production was enriched with other subjects later on, including the representation of traditional and regional costumes: ‘Pulcinellas’ based on Tiepolo’s paintings, and African female figures with colorful dresses made of ‘murrina’ glass.

The famous Fazzoletto (handkerchief) vase, dated

1949, is the result of the fruitful collaboration with Paolo Venini. There are several versions of this vase, with different dimensions, styles and glass textures.

It soon entered the museums of decorative arts throughout the world as a fine example of Murano art. The Macchie (spots) series, dated 1950, are also very refined, with recognizable abstract decorations in opaque glass that stand out on the thick transparent glass and bring to the artworks a distinctive pictorial value. The Sirene (Mermaids) and the Nudi (Nudes) collections from 1950, also made in monochrome crystal glass, show how the artist liked to experiment with essential shapes barely sketched on a sculptural matrix, as in the Glasses with Holes, a tribute to Henri Moore’s work, which were shown at the Triennale of Milan in 1951. Another peculiar aspect characterizing many of Bianconi’s glass pieces is the intense polychromy. The Pezzati series of 1950-51 was received with great success by the public: the series was created using a patchwork of multicolored and transparent tesserae arranged like a chessboard. They were made with different combinations of colors that were identified with names of cities and continents.

The chromatic vivaciousness distinguished other magnificent glass works by Bianconi, such as the A Spicchi series (segments, 1950-54), those with horizontal strips (1950 and 1953) and with vertical strips (195051), where one can see opposing and modulated combinations. The Scozzesi (Scottish vases) is another relevant and extremely rare type of glass work, showing an intense weaving made of crossed canes, shaped into a mould to form original square shapes. In the same period Bianconi made several glass animals, where the virtuosity of the techniques mastered in Murano was combined with the playfulness and the irony of this extraordinary and clever artist.

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PUBLICATIONS

Il vetro nelle opere di Glass in the work of

The catalogue presents the works by some of the most interesting international artists of our time who have experimented with industrial and found glass — from Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys, to Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst, Giovanni Anselmo and Jannis Kounellis, to name a few. This exhibition is part of Le Stanze del Vetro project, a joint collaboration between Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Pentagram Stiftung, developed with the aim of promoting the appreciation of and research in glass made in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the context of Venetian glassmaking and its peculiar artisan connotations, FRAGILE? aims at taking a different, yet equally important, aspect into account, namely the use of glass as a found object, with specific metaphorical and linguistic features.

Instead of precision or originality in design, other aspects will be sought, such as symbolic transparency, fragility and resistance, imprecision and smoothness, along with the construction of elements that draw inspiration from reality and contemporary artistic language.

Skira

Edited by Marino Barovier Description: 28 x 30 cm, 480 pages, 1780 color ills. Paperback Publisher: Skira Language: Italian or English Year: 2013 Isbn: 8857221403

Il catalogo presenta opere di artisti internazionali, tra i più interessanti del nostro tempo che hanno utilizzato anche il vetro come medium della loro poetica – da Marcel Duchamp e Joseph Beuys, fino ad Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst, Giovanni Anselmo e Jannis Kounellis, solo per citarne alcuni – e rientra nel progetto Le Stanze del Vetro, iniziativa congiunta di Fondazione Giorgio Cini e Pentagram Stiftung, nata con l’obiettivo di valorizzare l’arte vetraria del Novecento e mostrare le innumerevoli potenzialità e declinazioni di questa materia.

Nel particolare contesto della produzione vetraria veneziana e della tradizione artigianale che la caratterizza, la mostra FRAGILE? prende in considerazione un altro aspetto, altrettanto rilevante, dell’utilizzo del vetro nelle arti visive del secolo scorso e di quello appena iniziato: l’impiego del vetro come oggetto trovato, come materiale dalle particolari qualità metaforiche e linguistiche.

Anziché la precisione o l’originalità del disegno del manufatto, entrano in gioco il potenziale simbolico della trasparenza, della fragilità e della resistenza (Fragile?), dell’imprecisione e della levigatezza, nella costruzione di una situazione che attinge volontariamente dall’esperienza della realtà quotidiana e del linguaggio artistico contemporaneo.

FRAGILE?

Edited by Marino Barovier Description: 28 x 30 cm, 492 pages, 1640 color ills. Paperback Publisher: Skira Language: Italian or English Year: 2012 Isbn: 8857214733

Ai Weiwei Giovanni Anselmo David Batchelor Walead Beshty Joseph Beuys Monica Bonvicini Cyril de Commarque Michael Craig-Martin Marcel Duchamp Luciano Fabro Matias Faldbakken Ceal Floyer Claire Fontaine Gilbert & George David Hammons Mona Hatoum Damien Hirst Joseph Kosuth Jannis Kounellis Barry Le Va Mario Merz Carsten Nicolai Giuseppe Penone Gerhard Richter Pipilotti Rist Keith Sonnier Lawrence Weiner Rachel Whiteread

FRAGILE? a cura di Mario Codognato

Edited by Mario Codognato Description: 24 x 30 cm, 144 pages, 34 color ills. Paperback Publisher: Skira Language: Italian and English Year: 2013 Isbn: 8857219127

Description: 24 x 28 cm, 152 pages, 35 color and 8 b/w ills. Hardcover Publisher: Skira Language: Italian and English Year: 2014 Isbn: 8857224107

Edited by Marino Barovier, Carla Sonego Description: 28 x 30 cm, 448 pages, 1000 color ills. Paperback Publisher: Skira Language: Italian or English Year: 2014 Isbn: 8857222479

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CONTACT INFORMATION

LE STANZE DEL VETRO Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore 30124 Venezia, Italia www.lestanzedelvetro.it

Francesca Nisii Head of Cultural Projects Pentagram Stiftung Harbertstrasse, n. 1 Chur, Svizzera (CH) francesca.nisii@pentagram.org

Manuela Divari Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, 1 30124 Venezia, Italia exhibitions@lestanzedelvetro.it

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