UNBREAKABLE: WOMEN IN GLASS is awarded with the 2020 Bonhams Prize for The Venice Glass Week
With the exhibition UNBREAKABLE: WOMEN IN GLASS, curators Nadja Romain and Koen Vanmechelen balance the glass work of 64 contemporary women artists with the masculinity of a legendary Venetian glass furnace. This landmark exhibition of Fondazione Berengo explores the creative idiosyncrasies of glass work produced by female artists who continue to be sidelined in the art world. Featuring visionary artists from Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Asia the show brings together an ambitious line-up of women who have worked with Berengo studio in its furnaces on Murano during its thirty years of history.
Conceived during a global lockdown that disproportionately affected women both in the workplace and at home, UNBREAKABLE aims to counter the difficulties faced by female artists during this unprecedented time. Presenting 64 women from around the world who have shaped and supported Berengo Studio with their work in Murano, the exhibition honors women artists’ incredible spirit and puts them centre stage. Curators Nadja Romain (FR) and Koen Vanmechelen (BE) select iconic artworks from Berengo Studio’s vast thirty-year-old archive and combine them with an array of brand-new sculptures made earlier this year in the aftermath of Italy’s invasive Covid-19 lockdown.
Born out of a pandemic
‘UNBREAKABLE is a breakthrough,’ says curator and artist Koen Vanmechelen who’s been working with Berengo Studio since the nineties, resolutely from a new Venice. ‘This exhibition is a child of the pandemic. It represents a recovery, a renaissance, a big bang. The fragility of glass and the exclusive focus on women artists symbolize a new starting point. Together, both vital components represent care and a new world. Feminine strength and perseverance are crucial in this.’ Nadja Romain, who collaborates with leading contemporary talents and cultural institutions worldwide, states: ‘Murano, the millennial center of glassmaking is predominantly if not exclusively dominated by men, as is the traditional figure of the maestro in his furnace. This exhibition invites us to explore these female artists’ creative minds while they explore the versatile and fascinating art of making glass. Venice functions as a laboratory of the future.’
This is noticeable in the idiosyncratic handling of themes and memes which emerge in UNBREAKABLE. To name a few: Valeska Soares’ (BR) Aqua Alta (climate), In the Darkest Blossom was a Mythical Beast by Rina Banerjee (IN) (identity), Petah Coyne’s (US) hand-blown glass flower under a glass bell jar (a contemporary nature morte), Yin Xiuzhen’s (CN)’s The Container of Thinking (being versus seeming), Kate Mccgwire’s (GB) Siren (hybridity) and Cornelia Parker’s (GB) Black Window (regeneration).
UNBREAKABLE
The artwork which Vanmechelen created for the exhibition’s campaign image, depicting a woman clamping a dagger-like glass object between her teeth, visualizes the core statement. ‘She is vulnerable but unbreakable,’ states Vanmechelen. ‘Life goes on, no matter what. Question is, can we change it by caring for the other.’ Romain continues: ‘Glass is a state more than a matter, neither solid nor liquid. It’s a moment of transformation and grace. It’s a movement and a dance. Between the female artist and the glass maestro. It has the delicacy of lace but requires psychical strength. It’s difficult, dangerous, and unpredictable.’
This paradox is clearly visible in Liliana Moro’s (IT) La Spada Nell Roccia: a glass sword in a glass rock. Whoever takes the sword can lead. Or in Fiona Banner’s (GB) glass scaffolding, which juxtaposes the brutal and the delicate and Bonvicini’s (IT) glass belts that unravel the relationship between power and gender. Among the artworks on show also the ‘Enlightening Books” of Italian artist Chiara Dynys. Shirazeh Houshiary’s (IR) architectural “Flicker,” and the impressive chandelier of Joana Vasconcelos (PT).
Italian artist Federica Marangoni was the first artist to return to Berengo Studio after the worldwide lockdown. For this exhibition, she created two new sculptures: “Work Monument to the Female Job.” Recent works have also been made by Charlotte Gyllenhammer (SE), Judy Chicago (US), Karen LaMonte (US), Enrica Borghi (IT), Maria Grazia Rosin (IT), Laure Prouvost (FR), Lucy Orta (GB), and Maria Thereza Alves (BR).
A unique catalogue will be produced with contributions from among others Susan Fisher Sterling, Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., Gabriella Belli, Director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Agnes Husslein-Arco, who dives into the gendered history of art in Austria, and legendary glass master Lino Tagliapietra on his work with female assistants as well as a text by Rosa Barovier Mentasti, who explores the role of women in the history of Murano furnaces.
NEW GENERATION
“In history, the male side of humanity has rarely valued women for fear of losing power,” concludes Koen Vanmechelen. “Time has long been due to name legendary icons — inspiring artworks signed by women so that history can no longer be stolen. A memorable glass expo on Murano’s island can kick off a fragile yet determined movement that reflects the harshness of life that has no fear of being broken. The invisibility and transparency of glass shape a new generation while healing scars from history.”
UNBREAKABLE: WOMEN IN GLASS - ARTISTS
Diana Al-Hadid (Syria), Monira Al Qadiri, (Kuwait), Maria Thereza Alves (Brazil), Alice Anderson (UK), Polly Apfelbaum (USA), Elvira Bach (Germany), Patricia Bagniewski (Brazil), Rina Banerjee (India), Fiona Banner (UK), Rosemarie Benedikt (Austria), Pieke Bergmans (Netherlands), Renate Bertlmann (Austria), Monica Bonvicini (Italy), Marion Borgelt (Australia), Enrica Borghi (Italy), Nancy Burson (USA), Penny Byrne (Australia), Judy Chicago (USA), Petah Coyne (USA), Erin Dickson (UK), Chiara Dynys (Italy), Marie-Louise Ekman (Sweden), Tracey Emin (UK), Josepha Gasch-Muche (Germany), Gerda Gruber (Austria), Charlotte Gyllenhammar (Sweden), Charlotte Hodes, (UK), Shirazeh Houshiary (Iran), Ursula Huber (Italy), Marya Kazoun (Lebanon), Marta Klonowska (Poland), Kiki Kogelnik (Austria), Brigitte Kowanz (Austria), Karen LaMonte (USA), Silvia Levenson (Argentina), Federica Marangoni (Italy), Oksana Mas (Ukraine), Kate MccGwire (UK), Denise Milan (Brazil), Liliana Moro (Italy), Prune Nourry (France), ORLAN (France), Lucy Orta (UK), Cornelia Parker (UK), Anne Peabody (USA), Sibylle Peretti (Germany), Laure Prouvost (France), Hye Rim Lee (South Korea), Maria Grazia Rosin (Italy), Yaşam Şaşmazer (Turkey), Joyce J. Scott (USA), Shan Shan Sheng (China), Meekyoung Shin (South Korea), Valeska Soares (Brazil), Ivana Šrámková (Czechia), Lolita Timofeeva (Latvia), Janaina Tschäpe (Germany), Patricia Urquiola (Spain), Kiki van Eijk (Netherlands), Joana Vasconcelos,(Portugal), Ursula von Rydingsvard (Germany), Sabine Wiedenhofer (Austria), Rose Wylie (UK), Yin Xiuzhen (China)
PUBLIC OPENING
5 September 2020 - 07 January 2021
Open daily (excluding Wednesdays) from 10am - 1pm and 3 - 5pm
Free Entry
Fondazione Berengo Art Space:
Campiello Della Pescheria,
Fondamenta dei Vetrai,
30100, Murano
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