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The Venice Glass Week. From lamps to vases, from glasses to mirrors: niche objects for a discerning few hold their own against industrial production

Antonella Galli

Is there a future for handcrafted glass in design? The question is legitimate, especially considering how blown and hand-worked glass production is shifting increasingly toward the art world, with creations where expressive and manufacturing values take precedence over functional ones. The reasons are manifold: from the value of the pieces to the difficulties of production, but also to the ever-rarer expertise required to appreciate their technical specificities. The ninth edition of The Venice Glass Week, which closed today after eight intense days of events, exhibitions, workshops and experiences — more than two hundred across Venice and Murano — offered more than one answer to that opening question. Design and "artistic glass" (as blown and hand-worked glass is defined) remain a viable pairing, sometimes even a fruitful one, though today confined to a perimeter of precious productions dedicated to connoisseurs of the genre. The myth of Murano, despite the challenges the island has faced and continues to face, is alive throughout the world — almost as if foreigners, even more than Italians themselves, are acutely aware of that heritage and its potential. (…)

The synthesis of art, history and design in glass finds further expression in the new Futurist Mirrors line by Giberto Venezia, inspired by Giacomo Balla's painting Velocità astratta + rumore from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Comprising three small-scale mirrors and one monumental mirror — visible by appointment in a frescoed room at Palazzo Papadopoli Arrivabene (now Aman Venice) — the collection stems from designer Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga's desire to bring together works by celebrated artists and handcrafted glass objects. In this case, the challenge of rendering the geometric sections that compose the surface of the Futurist Mirrors in different hues and techniques was overcome through a collaboration with the manufactory AAV Barbini. Antonella Galli