contessanally: April 2018

Le Stanze del Vetro

A Furnace in Marseille. Cirva

Part One

In the magical setting of Le Stanze del Vetro on the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore the glass exhibition, A Furnace in Marseille. Cirva, which is on show in two separate venues; here at the Stanze Del Vetro, until July 29, and at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, until June 24 (see blog post below), both are curated by the director of the Cirva of Marseilles, Isabelle Reiher and Chiara Bertola, the curator of Contemporary Art at the Querini Stampalia. The project was conceived by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Pentagram Stiftung, and concentrates on a selection of 17 artists and designers, among those who have been in residence at the Cirva in the last thirty years, in an attempt to highlight the salient moments of creation. The artists selected have only occasionally come into contact with the glass world throughout their careers. For this reason, the results shown are original and surprising, extraordinary yet unpredictable. The meeting between the two seemingly distant realities, in this case Contemporary Art and glass, allows us to imagine and build a third one: a world in which glass is no longer simply a symbol of tradition, but a depiction of a new landscape and visionary nature.

http://lestanzedelvetro.org/en/

www.querinistampalia.org

http://www.cini.it/en

Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati

Larry Bell – First and Last – 1981-1989

Produced by the American artist, suggests a metaphor on the cycle of time. The beginning and the end are brought together in a monumental work composed of large glass walls subtlety tinted arranged with upmost simplicity.

Curators - Isabelle Reiher and Chiara Bertola

In the design of A Furnace in Marseille. Cirva Isabelle Reiher and Chiara Bertola have attempted to combine glass with the natural elements that characterize the environmental system of their cities: Marseille and Venice, both lapped by water, living in light, engaged in the re-imagining of glass, and never oblivious to sound. The exhibition therefore stems from the awareness that glass is not a material but a condition: a visual device that helps to identify something other than its pure form. It allows us to imagine the translation of an idea, to grasp the concretion of a vision’s inner energy, to touch the color of a profound insight and to show the hardness of a solid that dissolves into brilliance. In this “frozen” landscape born from fire, light, reflections and transparencies are of course pivotal.

Marie-Rose Kahane

Terry Winters – Marseille Templates – 2004-2006

blown glass in a mould - wood – felt pen annotations

Marseille Templates are bubbles of thought crystallized on verbalization

At Le Stanze del Vetro the history of the Cirva is presented through the works of 10 artists, who have contributed to forming an important part of its collection, succeeding through the instillment of creativity and experimental capacity. This is how Larry Bell, Pierre Charpin, Lieven De Boeck, Erik Dietman, Thomas Kovachevich, Giuseppe Penone, Jana Sterbak, Martin Szekely, Robert Wilson and Terry Winters find a space dedicated to their world: in each gallery of the exhibition there is an underlying detail on how the research and the exercise of each artist in the Marseille workshop have been fundamental to their work.

Alma Zevi and David Landau

Giuseppe Pennone – Ongle sur Branches d’Arbres – 1993

fused and slumped glass – branches

A major figure in Arte Povera, Pennone concentrates on nature and the tree in particular to produce powerful, animated works always in harmony with the human hand, its imprint, its action and its role in grasping the world around us.

Pasquale Gagliardi and Rosa Barovier Mentasti

Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati

Pierre Charpin – Torno Subito , Serie Ecran – 200-2001

blown glass- slumped plate glass

His long accorded priority is to an approach based on decoration, surface and color.

Tonci and Barbara Foscari

Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati

Robert Wilson

Study Drawings – 1994

Concept Series – 1994-2004

blown glass

The artist, theater and opera director’s work at Cirva spans ten years, it can be seen as a movement, a kind of flow representing the dialogue between artist and glass blower.

Beba Cittone and Giorgio Vigna

France Thierard, Brandino Brandolini d’Adda

Andriana Marcello del Majno

Atelier du Cirva

Designed as a research laboratory, the Cirva - Centre international de recherche sur le verre et les artes plastiques was established in Marseille in 1986 as a non-for-profit state entity to host international artists, designers and architects wishing to introduce glass to their creative process. These artists, who are often confronted with a difficult to master material for the first time, develop their designs assisted by the Cirva technical team.

Maurizio Torcellan and Fabrizio Plessi

Lieven De Boeck – Sa (100 Legos) – 2014-2015

cast glass

Under development for about fifteen years his Archives of Disappearance comprise a set of protocols made up of objects and images found in the city, materials that he then revisits in the light of various terms of reference (aesthetic, literary, philosophical…).

Gisella and Giorgio Simeone, Ketty and Paolo Alvera and Cecca Vattani

Renee Frank and Patrick Edgard-Rosa

Lieven De Broeck – Mikado LDB Modulor #4 – 2013-2014

drawn glass – silkscreen printed

Marco Arosio, Valeria Regazzoni and Marco Ceresa

“Glass imposes itself. It imposes itself on a project, it imposes a certain type of result, it cannot be tamed.”

Martin Szekely

Plats – 1999-2000

mould coated with molten glass by means of an air gun

The artist imagined a series of dishes designed in accordance with the principle of chance.

Alessandro Tusset, Jane Rushton, Jean Blanchaert

Elizabeth Royer Grimblat

Jana Sterbak – Container for Olfactive Portrait – 2004

Solid glass worked hot with blowpipe

Her works generally have the impact of a punch: sometimes violent but with no artifice. Popular legends, tales and beliefs are a source of inspiration, as well as, everything concerned with the energies, sufferings and transcendence of the human body.