Glasstress. Window to the Future
The display features more than 500 works created in glass by contemporary artists on the Venetian island of Murano. The participants include such famous figures as Ai Weiwei, Renate Bertlmann, Koen Vanmechelen, Michael Joo, Joseph Kosuth, Petah Coyne, Mat Collishaw and Laure Prouvost. Of particular interest are the pieces produced by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, the Chapman Brothers, Jaume Plensa, Jan Fabre and Hans Op de Beeck 鈥 artists whose works have already been shown with great success in exhibitions at the Hermitage.
This is one of the museum鈥檚 largest exhibitions of contemporary art, occupying more than ten halls, including the monumental expanses of the Grand Enfilade and White Hall, as well as the intimate spaces of the Courtyard Gallery and the Red Halls in the General Staff building. They will become the setting for miniature sculptures, large-scale installations, chandeliers several metres in size and even video art. The works reflect the artists鈥 striking complex ideas and show how glass can be 鈥減ushed out of its comfort zone鈥 and combined with other materials.
Artists from different countries and generations reflect in their creations on current social processes, historical events, personal experience, the characteristics and philosophy of what was for many of them a new material. The broad contingent of participants will provide visitors to the Hermitage with a unique opportunity to see a cross-section of present-day artistic life around the world and to discover how traditional glass-making technologies can be used to produce works of contemporary art.
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The display features more than 500 works created in glass by contemporary artists on the Venetian island of Murano. The participants include such famous figures as Ai Weiwei, Renate Bertlmann, Koen Vanmechelen, Michael Joo, Joseph Kosuth, Petah Coyne, Mat Collishaw and Laure Prouvost. Of particular interest are the pieces produced by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, the Chapman Brothers, Jaume Plensa, Jan Fabre and Hans Op de Beeck 鈥 artists whose works have already been shown with great success in exhibitions at the Hermitage.
This is one of the museum鈥檚 largest exhibitions of contemporary art, occupying more than ten halls, including the monumental expanses of the Grand Enfilade and White Hall, as well as the intimate spaces of the Courtyard Gallery and the Red Halls in the General Staff building. They will become the setting for miniature sculptures, large-scale installations, chandeliers several metres in size and even video art. The works reflect the artists鈥 striking complex ideas and show how glass can be 鈥減ushed out of its comfort zone鈥 and combined with other materials.
Artists from different countries and generations reflect in their creations on current social processes, historical events, personal experience, the characteristics and philosophy of what was for many of them a new material. The broad contingent of participants will provide visitors to the Hermitage with a unique opportunity to see a cross-section of present-day artistic life around the world and to discover how traditional glass-making technologies can be used to produce works of contemporary art.
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The exhibition 芦Glasstress. Window to the Future禄 opened on September 11, 2021 in the General Staff Building of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.