Glasstress 2011

A wide field of contemporary glass artists and designers are included in the second edition of the exhibition curated by Li Edelkoort, Peter Noever and Demetrio Paparoni.

The words glass and Murano are virtually synonymous. Say Murano and people, especially visitors to Venice who, in their thousands, purchase at least one small glass piece everyday, immediately think of knickknacks in all colours, forms and sizes. The Glasstress project is now in its second edition, curated by the eclectic scouter Lidewij Edelkoort as well as Peter Noever and Demetrio Paparoni. Based on a concept by Adriano Berengo and presented at the 54th Venice Biennale in Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti and Campiello della Pescheria in Murano, it, however, focuses on contemporary glass interpreted by internationally famous artists and designers.

With a platform of international curators from different countries, the exhibition develops the endless potential of glass in contemporary art, design and even architecture. The question is always the same and never resolved: Can an object conceived and designed to perform a specific function be called a work of art?

Top and above: details of the project by Patricia Urquiola.

The two exhibition venues will, until 27 November, alternate works by both established names and young talents in a long and interesting list that includes Anthon Beeke, Pieke Bergmans, Domenico Bianchi, Ernst Billgren, Joost van Bleiswijk, Barbara Bloom, with her glass that makes sounds, Monica Bonvicini, who has created a glass phallus, 5.5 designers, Holland's Kiki van Eijk, Jan Fabre, with his flying intestines, Kendell Geers, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Zaha Hadid, Paula Hayes, Jaime Hayon, Yuichi Higashionna, Magdalena Jetelova, Liu Jianhua, Michael Joo, Marya Kazoun, Konstantin Khudyakov, with all his faces trapped in plastic bags, Michael Kienzer, Marta Klonowska, Nawa Kohei, Oleg Kulik, Hitoshi Kuriyama, Hye Rim Lee, Tomáš Libertiny, Luke Jerram, Massimo Lunardon, Urs Luthi, Vik Muniz, with his splendid huge hourglass in which the sand has turned to brick, Nabil Nahas, Atelier Ted Noten, Tony Oursler, Anne Peabody, Javier Pérez, who offers the public Christ's crown of thorns like a relic on a fine damask cushion in an equally fine clear glass, Jaume Plensa, with his man in pieces spread out on the floor and revealing a red liquid inside.

Plus Recycle Group, Antje Rieck, Antonio Riello, Bernardì Roig, Maria Roosen, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Andrea Salvador, Judith Schaechter, Thomas Schütte, Anatoly Shuravlev, Kiki Smith, Mike + Doug Starn, Tanja Sæter, Patricia Urquiola, Pharrell Williams, Koen Vanmechelen, Fred Wilson, Erwin Wurm, with a surprising external Narrow House installation, Shi Yong, Tokujin Yoshioka, Yutaka Sone and Zhang Huan.

It can be perfect as in a pane or rough and opaque like my pieces, full of bubbles and imperfections. I do not consider perfection a challenge; perfect things can often not be interesting and frequently prove very boring.

Magdalena Jetelova, <i>(Des)orientation.</i> — Magdalena Jetelova, *(Des)orientation.*

The first work at the top of the grand staircase is by Joep van Lieshout, who has slotted a number of clear glass urinals into each other, held together by pink clay, in a vague, chaotic and disorderly form—as only he can. "It is highly unusual to make glass toilets as people usually tend to conceal physical liquids. This is the first time I have worked with this material and it was a fascinating experience although I must admit I often had a sense of frustration and impotence with regard to this captivating material. I am accustomed to constructing and assembling works by myself and creating them with my own hands or the aid of my assistants. I could not do this with glass as you must have the technical skill to control it, otherwise you fail to achieve anything. I could alter the process once it had started; I could not rethink or retouch things. I had no power because I did not actually make the object myself. I love mistakes and imperfections as I see them as the true beauty of things. Glass is a material with a thousand faces. It can be perfect as in a pane"—he points to a nearby glass case—"or rough and opaque like my pieces, full of bubbles and imperfections. I do not consider perfection a challenge; perfect things can often not be interesting and frequently prove very boring," says van Lieshout.

<i>Excrementorium</i> by Atelier Van Lieshout is a series of clear glass urinals held together by pink clay. Courtesy Atelier van Lieshout and Venice Projects. — *Excrementorium* by Atelier Van Lieshout is a series of clear glass urinals held together by pink clay. Courtesy Atelier van Lieshout and Venice Projects.

At the exhibition, we also meet Peter Noever, an eclectic character in a white linen jacket and with a beguiling smile and the renowned former director of MAK in Vienna; he has curated a room with a number of site-specific projects specially produced for Venice and created in the famous Berengo furnace—from Kendell Geers' glass police batons hung up to form a huge heart to archistar Zaha Hadid's bright purple oblong table, and a mirrored panel by Magdalena Jetelova with a sensor that reacts and vibrates to the noises and stimuli of the Grand Canal, which Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti overlooks.

Erwin Wurm, <i>Narrow House.</i>The oblong house located in the palace garden is an exact reproduction of the house where the Austrian artist grew up. Courtesy Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. — Erwin Wurm, *Narrow House.*The oblong house located in the palace garden is an exact reproduction of the house where the Austrian artist grew up. Courtesy Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

Opposite Jetelova is a soft and nimble speedboat that folds on the plinth supporting it, by Noever's fellow-country man, Austria's Erwin Wurm, also responsible for the oblong house in the garden of the Palazzo, an exact reproduction of where the artist spent his youth. Michael Kienzer has come up with a glass pallet to convey the fact that there is no hope of protecting art.

Another interesting work is on the concept of limits and by Korean Michael Joo, who combines the roped uprights employed to direct queues—mostly blown in a silver colour by master Massimo Lunardon and hence fragile and useless—with a work by American artist Tony Oursler, curated by Demetrio Paparoni and Gianni Mercurio.

Michael Kienzer, <i>Off Order, Vol 2,</i> courtesy of Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman. The pallet of glass designed by the artist Michael Kienzer seems to imply that there is no way of protecting art. — Michael Kienzer, *Off Order, Vol 2,* courtesy of Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman. The pallet of glass designed by the artist Michael Kienzer seems to imply that there is no way of protecting art.

The exhibition is one of the rare examples in the Lagoon of a project centred on a single material and offers a thrilling journey into the world of glass. It makes us forget all the emphasis on its technical potential and production and absorb all the warmth and malleability of a material that uses age-old skills to interpret contemporary and universal concepts.
Maria Cristina Didero

Glasstress 2011

A wide field of contemporary glass artists and designers are included in the second edition of the exhibition curated by Li Edelkoort, Peter Noever and Demetrio Paparoni.

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