Venice Glass Week 2024: among the city's glass on the water

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salonemilano, venice glass week 2024, idogi

Venice Glass Week, iDOGI

A reportage from the festival that brings together leading glass artists and creators from all over the world, including companies such as iDOGI

Venice is an archetype, a city rooted in the collective imagination, known for its canals, alleyways, gondolas, islands, glass and lace (and obviously its Spritzes and Cicchetti), even by those who’ve never even set foot there. At least, that’s what people imagine. However, even on one’s umpteenth visit, reflections, colours, ateliers, foundries and palaces seem to disclose tiny, all-new, magical worlds, in which ancient arts and modern skill combine. The Venice Glass Week 2024 is the festival that surprises us with new perceptions and experiences. The eighth edition, from 14th to 22nd September, has been a kaleidoscopic range of events to offer, celebrating the wonder of glass art.

The theme of the festival, which comprised over 260 events - exhibitions, guided tours, demonstrations and conferences - and is more international than ever this year, with 230 participants selected from 45 countries, is #AWorldofGlass. In this context, among the thousand or more wide-ranging options, works and attractions, iDOGI, a Venetian company founded in 1968 producing art glass and crystal lights (as well as mirrors and furnishings) has created Èrato, an imposing luminous sculpture (180 cm in diameter and 240 cm high), which combines art and design in a contemporary tribute to the Greek Muse of song and love poetry.

The piece was unveiled at the end of an evening event, during which attendees were treated to the sight of a master glassmaker at work – a task made up of heat, effort, dexterity, glances, patience and speed of execution – demonstrating that, aside from practice, this is a unique talent possessed by those who put passion at the heart of their creative process. Èrato represents a lyre, made of blown glass, crystal, marble and steel. The elegant spherical form, composed of 18 curved glass arms in straw and tobacco coloured glass, opens out in a harmonious reference to the strings of the musical instrument, evoking the lightness and power of love songs. The details, the subtle filigrees and chromatic shades create a play of transparencies and reflections that transform light into visual poetry. Not merely an objet d’art, Èrato is also a multisensory experience, thanks to its LED lighting system and wireless sound system.

The Venice Glass Week isn’t just a tribute to Venetian craftsmanship, but a platform that renews the connection between past and future. Initiatives such as the guided tours round historic foundries and workshops, and collateral events like Glass Bateo – a boat set up to narrate the history of Murano glass – make the festival into an immersive experience. Visitors are transported into a world in which glass, with its transparency and its light, becomes a symbol of transformation, cultural dialogue and innovation. This year too, the main festival hubs will be The Venice Glass Week HUB and The Venice Glass Week HUB Under35, at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, in Palazzo Loredan. Unmissable events include The Glass Banquet at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Welcome! A Palazzo for Immigrants – the result of the collaboration between Studio Berengo and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum – and 1912-1930 Murano Glass and the Venice Biennale at the Stanze del Vetro, on the Island of San Giorgio.

At a time when craftsmanship is in danger of being overwhelmed by industrial production, events such as The Venice Glass Week and works such as Èrato serve as a global reminder of the inestimable value of the "handmade." And blown glass remains one of the most brilliant examples of the way in which art can embody the soul of a city, projecting it into the future without forgetting its roots.