GLASS TO GLASS opens in Murano

Traditional craftsmanship paired with contemporary thinking. This is the common thread which brought Berengo Studio to collaborate with WonderGlass and work together to hold a joint exhibition. Titled Glass to Glass the show opened on Friday the 16th of July on the island of Murano. Split between Murano and Venice with a focus on contemporary design in glass, the exhibition provides the perfect opportunity to showcase the incredible variety of contemporary designers using the medium of glass in innovative and surprising ways in their practice.

“A collaboration with Berengo Studio came as a natural fit during a conversation with Adriano Berengo” the founder of WonderGlass, Maurizio Mussati, noted. “We realised that our passion and respect for glass deserved a major effort for Venice and Murano island. We wanted to give the sector of glass a new impulse and to showcase the endless possibilities that this medium has to offer. Since these past twelve months have been particularly challenging for the Venetian glass industry, we thought that creating a platform to foster new creativity would provide the opportunity also to young designers and artists to work together to build the future of glass.”

Indeed the selection of works brought together in the show span an impressive range of acclaimed artists and designers, with WonderGlass presenting new works by the likes of nendo and John Pawson, while Berengo reached out to creatives such as Maarten Baas and Sam Baron to collaborate for the first time.

Running throughout 2021 alongside the Venice Biennale of Architecture the venture establishes a collateral event with its own narrative on the Biennale theme of ‘How will we live together?’.

“Collaboration lies at the heart of all we do at Berengo Studio, bringing contemporary artists to work in glass,” Adriano Berengo observed, “so joining forces with WonderGlass has only secured our belief that creative collaboration and community are essential elements for great art and design to thrive.”

In a time when we really have been questioning how we will live, this contemporary exhibition provides an illuminating display of designs that dare to challenge our assumptions about certain everyday objects. What constitutes a light? A chandelier? A table? A chair? Functionality and form are interrogated with new eyes while at the same time an exploration into the limits of glass itself is cast centre stage.

With most of the exhibition housed in the vast old furnace of the Fondazione Berengo Art Space the show also stretches across the lagoon to the heart of Venice with several designers exhibited in an antique pharmacy just round the corner from the famous Piazza San Marco. Both venues act as powerful historical stages to further enhance the dynamic visions these designers have created for the future of glass.

The exhibition runs till November 21st at Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Murano and Berengo Collection, Venice. Free entry, seven days a week (though the Venice space is closed on Wednesdays).

For more info click here.