Around Venice
The Venice Glass Week
In its third edition, The Venice Glass Week,
an international festival dedicated to celebrating, supporting and promoting
the art of glassmaking – the artistic and economic activity for which the Lagoon City has been
renowned around the world for over 1000 years took place. The festival,
which boast more than 180 events and 150 venues is promoted by the Town Council of Venice, and conceived
and organized by Fondazione Musei Civici
di Venezia, Le Stanze del Vetro, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Istituto Veneto di
Scienze, Lettere ed Arti and
Consorzio Promovetro Murano.
L'Angolo del Passato di Giordana Naccari
Gianni
Seguso – Caged Paradise
Maestro glass maker Gianni Seguso, who through his ability and experience is capable of
creating both classic and modern glass pieces, specializes in figurative
sculpture. Caged Paradise was inspired
by historical Rezzonico-style
chandeliers, inside human and animal shapes compose a sort of Eden, captive within the glass cage
that is fully illuminated.
Giordana
Naccari
gallerist
Laura de Santilana – Studio
Laura de Santillana
– Franco Mazzucchelli – Soffi
The exhibition - Soffi - curated by Sabino
Maria Frassa, is on show, by appointment, in the studio of glass designer Laura de Santillana on the Isola della Giudecca. Promoted by Cramum, this exhibition underlines the
strong connection between Laura de
Santillana's and Franco Mazzucchelli's
works: glass and plastic share the fact of being generated by air. Indeed
“Soffio” is an Italian word meaning both breath and blow.
Laura de Santillana – Franco Mazzucchelli
Soffi
Mazzucchelli
and de Santillana consider the air of
breaths and blows as a unique and essential element which can transform the – raw
- material giving it life, order and definite shape. Until air is not blown and
imprisoned inside, Mazzucchelli's works are shapeless plastic material. In the
same way, the famous – deflated - sgonfiati - or the – Faithful – Fedeli - by
Laura de Santillana would not exist without being first blown-glass volumes.
Laura de Santillana – Franco Mazzucchelli
Soffi
Even though both artists pay attention to the
harmony and the balance of the final work, the - soffi - become so important in the artistic process as to determine
the work itself. The artist cannot but wait and be linked to the
unpredictability and the mystery of the creation he/she has started and that is
completed only ... thanks to the – soffio.
Antonia Miletto Gioielli
Laura de Santillana - Maria Grazia Rosin
Lilla Tabasso with Antonia Miletto
Sympathy
Sympathy is a collaboration between Antonia Miletto, jewelry designer and three women artists working
in glass: Laura de Santillana, Maria Grazia Rosin and Lilla Tabasso. The show, inspired by
Miletto’s appreciation for the artistic visions of these artists, searches the
possibility to entwine sophisticated women minds and materials, the precious
and non-precious, in order to create objects that are both sculptures and
unique pieces of jewelry.
Maria Grazia Rosin – Antonia Miletto - rings
The art works produced exclusively for this
exhibition are the result of a complex creative collaboration and the work of
highly talented craftsmen, the glass in its different forms and incorporated
with exotic woods, resin, gemstones and gold is always at the center of these
pieces.
Laure de Santillana
– Antonia Miletto
- necklace
Laure de Santillana
– Antonia Miletto
– necklace
Lilla
Tabasso – Antonia Miletto – pendent
Teo
Caterina Tognon Vetro Contemporaneo
Vaclav Cigler and Michal Motycka - Prisms and Cylinders
The expression Land Art enters the lexicon of
contemporary art in the late '60s mainly in relation to American artists. But already in 1959 Vaclav Cigler, class 1929, entrusted on paper projects that could
not be defined, if not with that specific expression. Present in the gallery,
until November 24, a selection of works on paper by Cigler dated 1956-1967, the
only witnesses of the ambitious vision of the artist: given the limited means
at his disposal at the time, the works remained at project stage. Also, in the
exhibition a series of glass objects which reproposes the dual identity of the
drawings: autonomous creations - optical glass sculptures of pure forms, of
minimalist inspiration, - but also maquettes
for installations in glass, or other materials.
Caterina Tognon
gallerist
“Glass is
a magical, and in some sense spiritual, material.
Optical
glass,
which I have
been working with since the late1950s, is a material that has been developed
for technical and scientific purposes. Working with it, one can discover the
secrets of the micro and macro world and see
a world
that is different from the world one sees with the naked eye. The optical
properties of glass are therefore artistic and aesthetic means for me with the
help of which I can introduce to the viewer a work featuring
new
shapes, lights and colors.”
Vaclav Cigler
Palazzo Contarini Polignac – Edmond a Venise
Judi harvest - The Mysterious Traveling Honeybees of Venice
The first of a series of children books written and illustrated by Judi
Harvest - The Mysterious
Traveling Honeybees of Venice – was presented at Palazzo Contarini Polignac during The Venice Glass Week 2019 together
with a combination of her one of a kind glassworks, illustrations and
watercolors connected to the book.
Judi Harvest
The Beekeeper – oil on linen – painting
Honey Vases with Branches – Murano glass –
Gigante –
Murano Glass and wire – Alveare Verde - Murano glass
http://www.palazzocontarinipolignac.com
- http://www.judiharvest.com/
Judi Harvest
The honeybees start their journey from the
Honey Garden in Murano that Judi Harvest had planted in 2013
on a forgotten field behind the Giorgio Giuman Glass Factory on Sacca
Serenella which today has become a beautiful flourishing garden hosting 7 honeybee colonies. Vaporettos are essential in their commuting as they do not swim
and the Laguna di Venezia does not have many places for a honeybee to rest. This exhibition, while
relating the viewer to these marvelous, spiritual creatures, also wanted to
bring awareness to the endangered honeybees and Murano Glass Masters -
two colonies of fragile, fundamental beauty. It is as much about our wild and
precious lives as is about the Honeybees. Like a honeycomb, everything is
connected.
Judi Harvest
The Mysterious Travelling Honeybees of Venice - book
Api-Retto - 4.2 - wooden
model of vaporetto with Murano Glass – 2019
Photograph courtesy Judi Harvest
Judi Harvest - Burano - watercolor
– 2019
Palazzo Contarini Polignac – Androne
Muriel Balensi – Butterfly Action Beauty
“Can the beating of wings of a butterfly in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas?" In 1963, Edward Lorenz formulated this
mathematical theory of chaos with this metaphor. Like the mathematician, Muriel Balensi believes in the
microcosm and creates a steel-knit weave of 14 butterflies each crowning one of
her Murano pearls.
Chiarastella Cattana Venezia
Laura Sattin – Glass Threads
Laura Sattin is an
Italian architect and designer who lives and works between Venice and Basel. Her work
is distinguished by the continuous reflection on the context surrounding her.
For Chiarastella Cattana’s store, Laura
developed a theme that is linked to the work of the fabric designer - Glass Threads. Objects whose common
denominator is the use of mezza filigrana, a refined and complex
glass-working technique that creates wefts and weaves of threads on the glass
surface. This ancient technique is used to create new patterns and melange of colors in objects that combine
traditional crafts and contemporary aesthetics.
Laura Sattin
architect
– designer
Chiarastella Cattana
fabric designer
Text courtesy - The Venice Glass Week 2019