GLASSTRESS 8½

Fondazione Berengo, Murano, IT
20 April – 24 November 2024
Group Exhibition, Independent collateral event of the 60th Biennale Arte

To find Simon Berger's work at Glasstress 8½, visitors had to look for it. His installation lay hidden inside one of Murano's historic glass furnaces, and the way there led through the labyrinth of the working furnace.

At its centre was a large glass work on the floor, conceived to change over time. Berger left its completion to the visitors: with every person crossing the glass, new fractures appeared, and the image slowly emerged. After thousands of visitors, it revealed the face of a Murano glass maestro.

In a place where generations of glass masters have shaped and perfected their material, Berger created a portrait of one of them through fracture, completed by the visitors together.

Murano has been a centre of glassmaking for centuries. For more than 35 years, Berengo Studio has brought contemporary artists to the island to work with its glass masters. Glasstress 8½, the eighth and expanded edition of its exhibition series, was an independent collateral event of the 60th Venice Biennale. Its title refers to Federico Fellini's film 8½ and its theme of artistic creation. Berger showed his work alongside artists including Ai Weiwei, Tony Cragg, Laure Prouvost, Monica Bonvicini and Thomas Schütte.

It was his second Glasstress, two years after State of Mind in 2022, and it continued a relationship with Murano that had included Shattering Beauty, his solo exhibition at the Museo del Vetro in 2023.

Credits

Fondazione Berengo, Berengo Studio

Photography: © NOA contemporary