The Venice Glass Week will animate the lagoon city, Mestre and the island of Murano again this year with over 180 events conceived by 150 national and international promoters.
Since 2017 the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, the Giorgio Cini-Le Stanze del Vetro Foundation and the Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts have chosen with the Municipality of Venice to dedicate an entire week to the celebration of glass artisans and despite the restrictions due to the health emergency and in full compliance with the anti Covid-19 safety regulations, the calendar that will animate the event until 13 September is truly rich.
There are numerous activities designed to bring visitors closer to glass processing, thus making them apprentices for a day. The traveling furnace The Floating Furnace will turn in the Lagoon hosting live demonstrations by masters ready to answer questions and curiosities.
The Venice Glass Week does not forget the little ones and, thanks to the Artsystem company, offers five itinerant afternoons designed for children of all ages.
A careful look at the delicate relationship of artists with the art market is that of Nadja Romain & Koen Vanmechelen, curators of the Unbreakable: Women in Glass exhibition at the Berengo Art Space Foundation: the exhibition presents a selection of masterpieces created in collaboration with Berengo Studio over the past 30 years. Among them stand out the majestic chandeliers by Joana Vasconcelos, the Flicker work by Shirazeh Houshiary, the stained glass window by Cornelia Parker, the scaffolding by Fiona Banner and the Enlightening Books by Chiara Dynys. There is no shortage of new works by national and international designers to demonstrate how valuable art always finds a way to present itself to the world in the end.
VENICE GLASS WEEK 2020. INSTITUTIONAL EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS
For the fourth edition of the event Palazzo Loredan is home to The Venice Glass Week HUB hosting two of the key exhibitions. On the first floor is a selection of 17 Italian and international projects chosen by the scientific committee of the event chaired by the curator and glass historian Rosa Barovier Mentasti, while on the ground floor 12 artists under 35 present their works. The tribute to the artist and designer Laura de Santillana, recently deceased nephew of Paolo Venini, is very heartfelt: the detail of one of his works was chosen as the guiding image of the exhibition on the first floor of the HUB. In this edition of Venice Glass Week the prizes double. A first cash prize, the Bonhams Prize for the Venice Glass Week, will be awarded to an artist chosen from among the many participants. The jury reserves the right to assign the special mention to two other designers who will have distinguished themselves for the originality of the project.
For the first time, the under 35s are also awarded with a two-month artist residency at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, supported by the Cultural Association for the Safeguarding of Murano Glass Techniques E.T.S. through the Autonomous project.
