The 2024 edition of “Glasstress” by the Berengo Foundation opened in Venice last weekend. On the island of Murano, the center of Venetian glassmaking since the 13th century, glass exhibitions and installations by various artists, curated by Umberto Croppi, can be viewed (and purchased) until November 24, 2024.
Robert Wilson’s newest glass creation, in collaboration with the glass masters of Berengo Studio, was inspired by a pair of Chinese ceramic figurines from the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD): two acrobats kneeling and balancing pottery jars on their arms. At the same time, with their outstretched arms, they seem on the verge of fighting each other. Indeed, acrobatics in the Han Dynasty included juggling and martial arts, and even some ancient Chinese warriors were trained in both.
In a rare figurative approach, Wilson and the Berengo Studio contemplated on these Han acrobats, and—instead of ceramics, using glass with its fascinating lightness and heaviness at once—created a series of unique pairs of “Wrestlers.” The Wrestlers appear more performative than sculptural in their palpable readiness to move and strike.
“Robert Wilson’s “Wrestlers” seem to be one of the few figurative representations of characters in the artist’s oeuvre, while explicitly corresponding with the performing arts. They seem to express the staggering power of a gesture that is stopped, suspended; if only for a fraction of a second. Between these wrestlers, between the intention and the act, everything is frozen. It is this sublime moment between extreme tension and calm that Wilson reveals to us. These little figurines, as strong and fragile as glass, do not just tell us a random anecdote, but, like votive offerings, lead us to the sensitive heart of Wilson’s universe.”
Glasstress is a project by Adriano Berengo to further his mission to promote the use of glass in the world of contemporary art. The first Glasstress exhibition was launched in 2009 to establish a new platform for art made with glass. Founded as a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale of Arts, although its roots will always remain in Murano it has gone on to tour the world. Coinciding with the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Glasstress returns to its original location—an old furnace on the island of Murano transformed into an exhibition space—together with a special project at the Tesa 99 in the Arsenale Nord. The title of the exhibition is an homage to filmmaker Federico Fellini and his masterpiece of the same name, a film which hinges on the theme of artistic creation. It also emphasises the exhibition's eighth, specially "expanded" edition, with the 1/2 indicating two large never before seen installations that will be exhibited in Tesa 99.