Play with Glass – European Glass Festival
15.10 – 10.11.2016
The organisers – Anita Bialic and Prof. Kazimierz Pawlak invite the most prominent European glass artists, representing three subsequent generations, to participate in the festival events.
‘In this way, we seek to show the great opportunities that glass can provide to artists. At the same time, we track the changes that have occurred in the use of this material over the last few decades”, Kazimierz Pawlak emphasised.
The most important event of the Play with Glass – European Glass Festival is the main exhibition, which is devoted to a different topic every year and has been presented at the historical Session Hall at Wrocław’s Main Railway Station, the City Gallery in Łódź, the Karkonosze Museum in Jelenia Góra, and the Art Gallery in Legnica.
This year’s main exhibition, “Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde” will be accompanied by additional exhibitions held in ten galleries in Wrocław, including the Festival Debut at the Arttrakt Gallery – a presentation of works by Czech designer Sebastián Kitzberger, nominated in 2015 for the Czech Grand Design Award as the Discovery of the Year, and “Where is my Paradise?” – a solo exhibition by an outstanding German-based Japanese artist Shige Fujishiro at the SiC! BWA Wrocław Gallery.
The festival will also include an international seminar on European glass art and numerous arts and education projects, including: Glass in Wrocław’s Urban Space, A Glass Display Case, A Glass Bus, an Open House at the Chair of Glass of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and in Lower Silesian glass studios, and glass workshops. During this year’s festival, all galleries presenting displays under the festival will be open on the Glass Weekend – October 15-16.
Since 2012, the European Glass Festival has been organised annually in October by the BB Gallery and the Fly with Art Foundation in close collaboration with the Municipality of Wrocław, the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and the Association of Polish Artists and Designers – the Wrocław Chapter. The festival project was included in the application of the City of Wrocław for the title of the European Capital of Culture 2016.
The 5th European Glass Festival is co-financed by the European Capital of Culture.
Exhibitions taking place as part of the Play with Glass Festival:
Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde
17 October – 10 November 2016
Opening: 17 October, 5:00 p.m.
Main Railway Station, Session Hall
The main exhibition taking place as part of the Play with Glass – European Glass Festival.
The famous novella by Scottish writer, Robert Louis Stevenson – Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published in 1886 – tells us the story of a renowned doctor from London, Henry Jekyll, who after drinking an elixir he invented turns into the cruel Edward Hyde. Dr Jekyll, unable to deal with the evil deeds he committed as Hyde eventually commits suicide. Stephenson’s novella is often described as a portrait of a psychopathological double personality, and introduced the phrase “Jekyll and Hyde”, describing a person with double personality to everyday language. Will the change into Mrs Hyde prevent Dr Jekyll’s suicide? Will Mrs Hyde turn out to be a monster, just like Mr Hyde? Or maybe she will be a suffragist from London, fighting for women’s rights? Among other stories by Stevenson, the story of Dr Jekyll still inspires imagination of the readers worldwide. Will it also provoke the artists invited to participate in the main exhibition of the 5th Play with Glass – European Glass Festival titled “Mr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde”, and to present their own course of events? Will it inspire them to present the contemporary story of Dr Jekyll, lonely in the industrial and virtual space of the 21st century using glass?
Anita Bialic
Artists:
Kalina Bańka – Poland; Jakub Berdych – Czech Republic; Æsa Björk – Norway; Javier Blanco – Spain; Jana Hojstričová, Palo Macho – Slovakia; Krista Israel – Netherlands; Maria Koshenkova – Russia/Denmark; Magdalena Kucharska – Poland; Sini Majuri – Finland; Mihály Melcher – Hungary; John Moran – Belgium; Silvio Vigliaturo – Italy; Janusz Walentynowicz – Denmark/USA; Krzysztof Wałaszek – Poland; Bernd Weinmayer – Germany/Austria; Dana Zámečníková – Czech Republic; Barbara Zworska-Raziuk – Poland
Curator: Anita Bialic
Beginning – Sebastian Kitzberger | Festival Debut
15 – 31 October 2016 | Arttrakt Gallery
Opening: 17 October 2016, 8:00 p.m.
Every year, the author of the exhibition hosted at the Arttrakt Gallery during the “Play with Glass” European Glass Festival chooses a student of an artistic university, from a faculty or field of study connected with glass art, who in their opinion deserve being presented to a wider audience.
Sebastian Kitzberger (born in 1992) graduated from the Art Glass School (Střední uměleckoprůmyslová škola sklářská) in Valašské Meziříčí (Czech Republic) in 2012. Currently, he is a master candidate at the Glass Studio led by Rony Plesl at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (VŠUP) in Prague. He has completed an internship at the Concept –Object – Meaning Studio (K.O.V.), led by Eva Eisler at the AAAD in Prague. He also participated in a couple of group exhibitions, including the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan (2015); London Design Festival (2014) and Designblok 2014 in Prague. The artist received the Design Talent Card at Designblok 2014 and was nominated as the Discovery of the Year for the Czech Grand Design Awards in 2015. He works with large format techniques, focusing on cut glass and obtaining various colours. His works, characterised by a sense of humour, are precisely crafted. Sebastian Kitzberger is cooperating with Štěpán Smetana, a student of the Studio of Architecture at the AAAD in Prague. Together they designed a series of lights, which they called the “Beginning”.
Where is my paradise? – Shige Fujishiro
17 October 2016 – 12 November 2016
SiC Gallery, pl. gen. T. Kościuszki 9/10
Opening: 17 October 2016, 7:00 p.m.
Where is my paradise?
Shige’s seductive objects relate to the symbolism of the Garden of Eden. Although we are aware that we had been expelled from it, we are constantly trying to trace the promise of paradise in various small pleasures offered by the material world. Shige’s sculptures are mainly focused on independent materiality, even though they imitate nature and everyday objects. Millions of glass beads, a lot of wire and safety pins arouse admiration and anxiety at the same time. The works that contain dissected animals become a tale of an idyllic land of promise, our notions of Eden, but also at the same time a brutal collision with reality. Is that what surrounds us sufficient? Where is my paradise? is an exhibition asking questions at various levels: What kind of reality are we experiencing here? Is this a paradise? A crime scene? A museum? Maybe a zoo? Shige weaves his objects from shiny glass beads, which are known for being one of the oldest jewellery items and precious ancient commodities. Lush floral and animal motives as well as regular shopping bags consisting of a million shining beads seduce us with their artistry and craftsmanship. Due to his laborious work, the artist creates a new artificial reality in an already set and ready world. By using biblical themes relating to the Garden of Eden, the land symbolising happiness and eternal attempts to find happiness, Fujishiro builds another myth and adds successive layers of narrative. What does paradise mean in the face of individualised human postmodern worlds? What is the role of artist who creates new artificial worlds and forms? In Japanese, the notion of paradise literally means “the highest happiness”. This is the first step to the “pure land”, where the loop of rebirth gets broken. Neither naturalness nor creationism of art would have any meaning there. The ethos of paradise as an idea is beautiful, but to get there, a man must fulfil one condition. To quote a song by Nina Hagen: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”
SHIGE FUJISHIRO
In 2002 he graduated from the Department of Fine Arts and Art Theory at the Hiroshima University in Japan, and in 2002-2005 he completed his doctoral studies there. He also participated in the student exchange programme at Hochschule Hannoverv in 2000–2001. The artist lives and works in Germany. He received numerous awards, including: the Jutta Cuny-Franz Talent Award from Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf (Germany, 2011); the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Award, the Coburg Glaspreis 2014 from Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg (Germany). He also participated in individual and collective exhibitions, such as: Haus der Kunst in Munich (2011); GLASPLASTIK UND GARTEN, Münster (Germany, 2013); Coburger Glaspreis 2014 at Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg (Germany).
His works are featured in the collection of the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung in Munich, in the Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, the European Museum of Modern Glass in Rödental (Germany), and in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf. Shige Fujishiro, a Japanese artist living in Germany, investigates in his art the cultural differences between the East and the West. Glass beads are his favourite material.
Memory Cards – Małgorzata Mitka
15 October – 31 October 2016 BB Gallery, Jatki 3-6
Opening: 18.10.2016, 8:00 p.m.
I was born in Laski near Olkusz. In this small village, situated near the forest, I learned to walk, met my first friends, played on the pitch, left school, I fell in love… For 5 years, I have lived in Wrocław, but I go back to Laski at every opportunity. I meet with family and friends, I take the dog for long walks, and with sadness I note in my memory the changes that occurred since I moved to Wrocław. New buildings in the place of the old ones, new shops, a disco, and a lowering number of cultivated fields and farms.
Only the chapel and the school have remained in the same place for decades.
It is not known exactly when Laski was founded; the documents indicate that it was in the second half of the 18th century.
The village developed due to the existing steel industry in Bolesław and Kuźnica Błędowska. The residents of Laski were also loggers. For many years the history of Laski was written down by one of the residents, Henryk Czerniak. He created a unique, hand-written, four-volume chronicle, illustrated with 535 original photographs.
His passion inspired my idea to perpetuate the history of my village on glass panels. I used parts of “The Chronicles of Laski”, calligraphed by Henryk Czerniak, to create my own personal “Glass chronicles of Laski”. There, I tell the story of a small town that will always be my family home.
Małgorzata Mitka
MAŁGORZATA MITKA
In 2016 she graduated from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław.
Since the days of secondary school, she has been interested in glass. She uses every opportunity to expand her knowledge about the techniques of glass and improve her skills in working with the material. She likes to experiment by realising her invented projects. She likes new challenges, and is stubborn in achieving her goals.
Coordinator of the “Glass Displays” project, carried out as part of the European Glass Festival in 2015.
Flamingos and Inselbergs – Stefan Sadowski
15-28 October 2016
SOCATO Art Gallery, Plac Solny 11
Opening: 18.10.2016, 5:00 p.m.
Glass as a substance and artistic material has – in addition to its great virtues – one disadvantage: sometimes it is too pretty. All the layers of natural beauty are embedded in its inner character and this value exposes itself on its own. What seems to be an asset of this material may also be at the same time a kind of trap for the designer. It becomes something that begins to dominate, creating a kind of decorative, external, and not always necessary aura, blurring the clarity of the final message. Stefan Sadowski is one of the few glass artists who have not succumbed to the decorative qualities of this noble material. Countless objects, implemented with consistency and artistic stubbornness, make up multi-threaded and various themed cycles. Making them over almost half a century, Sadowski uses a diverse style: from almost minimalist-treatment, through dishevelled expressiveness, often lined with an almost romantic perception of reality. At the same time knowingly, with feeling and technical virtuosity, he uses such natural qualities of the substance as its natural aesthetics and expression, and even the symbolism of the material. Stefan Sadowski artistically convincingly materializes his own various inspirations, ideas and creative thoughts. His glass objects and sculptures are not elegant, decorative, and artistic gadgets but satisfy – as does a good picture, a wise book, a film or a moving piece of music – the role of transmitter of ideas and thoughts.
Andrzej Klimczak-Dobrzaniecki
STEFAN SADOWSKI
In 1963-1969 he studied at the Faculty of Painting and Glass, the Study of Glass Design, State College of Fine Arts (currently: the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design) in Wrocław, with Prof. Maria Dawska and Prof. Stanisław Dawski. After his graduation, he worked at the “Sudety” Crystal Glass Factory, – from 1968 as a designer, from 1975 as the director, and later as the head specialist. In 1986 he founded his own workshop – the Glass Studio in Polanica-Zdrój.
The artist won many awards, including: an honourable mention at the National Exhibition of Artistic and Utility Glass in Katowice in 1975 and 1977, bronze medal at the Glass Triennale in Kłodzko (1977); the funded award at the National Exhibition of Artistic and Utility Glass in Katowice in 1979; “Design of the Year” award of the Poznań International Fair (1982); bronze medal, “Artists Confronting the Inconceivable” of the American Interfaith Institute (Philadelphia, USA, 1992).
He participated in approx. 20 individual exhibitions in Poland and around the world, including Chateau d’Oupeye (Belgium, 1993); National Museum in Wrocław (2000). The artist also took part in approx. 40 group exhibitions in Poland and abroad, such as: Coburger Glaspreis, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg (Germany, 1977, 1985); International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa in 1990 and 1992, “New Polish Glass” at the Finnish Glass Museum in Riihimäki (Finland 1996); “Polish Ceramics and Glass of the 20th century” at the National Museum in Wrocław (2004). He presented his works during numerous editions of the Poznań International Fair and the International Frankfurt Fair (Messe Frankfurt) in Frankfurt am Main.
His works are featured in many public and private collections, such as: the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Wrocław; the National Museum – Museum of Applied Arts in Poznań; the Karkonosze Museum in Jelenia Góra; Sielecki Castle in Sosnowiec; the Museum of the Kłodzko Land in Kłodzko; the Castle Museum in Książ; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft (Denmark); the European Museum of Modern Glass in Rödental (Germany) and Glasmalerei Peters Studios in Paderborn (Germany).
Travellers – Marta Gibiete
15 October -10 November 2016
KAPRYSY Art and Design Gallery
Opening: 15 October 2016, 5:00 p.m.
Travellers
I remember the sensation of happiness from childhood, when in a warm summer day I was lying in the middle of a meadow full of flowers and I was watching the white, finny floating clouds in the blue sky. Clouds were floating… Where did they come from, how did they appear there? I imagined how the funny cloud that just had drifted past me will fly over the town where my friend lives a few hours later. Maybe it would tell her how good it is to sleep in a meadow full of flowers.
Many years later, another friend of mine from Finland, when she was going to go back home, said: “Every time I gaze at the full moon, I’ll be sending you greetings.” And yes, at first I received them often – now it happens a bit more rarely, though.
With clouds, light, the stars we can travel around Earth countless times. With my thoughts, dreams and with my work I travel the world, near and far from home. All my glass works are travellers carrying greetings from me to you.
Shape, colour and texture are qualities that inspire me to create. Glass itself is an extraordinary material to work with. Every day I can meet many faces of glass – so different, so beautiful.
I like dreaming about travellers in space. I like watching clouds in the sky. I like picking mushrooms in the woods and listening bird choirs. All those dreams, thoughts and ideas you can see in my glass objects – my travellers.
Marta Gibiete
MARTA GIBIETE
In 2005 she graduated from the Faculty of Visual Plastic Arts (3D) at the Art Academy of Latvia in Riga. In 2002-2016 she was awarded numerous grants and stipends for her creative works, for which she won numerous prizes, including: Ebeltoft Prize in the International Young Glass Competition in 1997 (Denmark) and the Jutta Cuny-Franz Memorial Award from the Glasmuseum Hentrich im Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1999. She was also nominated for the Art Academy of Latvia Award in 2011.
She participated in 8 solo exhibitions and more than 100 international exhibitions, including the Young Glass ’97 at the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft (1997); Spirited Approach: Women Glass Artists Today at Museum Kunstpalast (2000); Coburger Glaspreis in Coburg (Germany, 2006, 2014); International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa 2007 in Japan; European Glass Context in Bornholm, (Denmark, 2008, 2016); UFO Unique–Form–Object, the main exhibition of Play with Glass – the European Glass Festival in Wroclaw (2013); Lux Aeterna at Biennale Internationale du Verre in Strasbourg (France, 2015).
Her works can be found in the collections of the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft; Museum Kunstpalast; Ernsting Stiftung Glasmuseum (the Ernsting Foundation Museum of Glass in Coesfeld, Germany); the Latvian Embassy in Berlin and the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Riga (Latvia).
She loves cycling and picking mushrooms.
Still life – Anna Gałuszka
15 October – 10 November 2016
Tętno Gallery
Opening: 18 October 2016, 8:00 p.m.
The notion of still life, i.e. stil-leven, means silent, motionless life. In my project I refer to both the still life – dead animals passed on the road, symbolising the inevitability of death, which I encounter every day, as well as still life, which is only an aesthetic composition.
In the objects in the exhibition: wicked, funny, sometimes even infantile or kitschy, I am trying to capture that everyday moment, pay attention to the beauty of the world, and at the same time reveal a painful truth about its instability and corruption and about the inevitable passing of our lives and ending in their death.
Glass is only one of the materials that I use to create works. Often I combine it with clay, fabric, but also with sheet metal and fur. My compositions can also have dried fruit, bird feathers or animal dander embedded into them.
Anna Gałuszka
ANNA GAŁUSZKA
Graduated from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the Academy of Fine Arts (currently: E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design) in 1999.
She has participated in 2 individual exhibitions and approx. 20 group exhibitions in Poland and Denmark. Since 2012 she has been actively participating in the activities undertaken by the Fly with Art Foundation as part of the European Glass Festival “Play with Glass”, including organising and leading glass workshops at the Department of Corrections of the Ministry of Justice in Sadowice, the Ocalić Szansę Association – SOS Wrocław, and in rural community centres in Lower Silesia. The artist also coordinated the Glass Bus project for children with disabilities and seniors. Since 2015 she has been running the Tętno Gallery in Wrocław, together with Monika Muszyńska and Maryna Zaradkiewicz.
HOT DOG – Stanisław Jan Borowski
15 – 31 October 2016
Versus Gallery
Opening: 18 October 2016, 8:00 p.m.
Stanisław Jan Borowski is an artist with a capital “A”, an undisputed master of glass processing and creator of sculptures, which are a part of art collections around the world. Glass is his passion, and his appetite for this material is inscribed in his genetic code. I have known Stani for a dozen years, and have many times had the opportunity to spend time with him in Studio Borowski, where he creates his objects. As almost peers and artists we have common ground. Tens of hours talked away, a great deal of time spent together at the glass workshop, moments of joy and frustration, fatigue and euphoria… all this gave me the courage to invite Stani and his art to the intimate space of the Versus Gallery.
The works presented at the HOT DOG exhibition elude the classical concept of “glass sculpture”. Perfectly shaped glass is often combined with wood, metal, ceramics, and the strong, vivid colours reflect the vitality of the artist’s creative and unfettered imagination. In addition, a pinch of humour, a bit of tongue-in-cheek and non-obvious references to the surrounding world display what I value most in Stani: sensitivity and an exceptional insight in observing what is happening around us.
Pati Dubiel
STANISŁAW JAN BOROWSKI
Born in Poland in 1981; in 1983 his parents moved to Rheinbach, Germany. He had his first experience with glass art as a child at his father’s – Stanisław Borowski, a famous glass artist – studio in Germany. Graduated from a secondary school of design, Cologne in 2002, and completed an educational programme at the Kurek Studio in Bad Godesberg, also in 2002. In 2007 he graduated from the Institute of Ceramic and Glass Arts (Hochschule Koblenz, Institut für Künstlerische Keramik und Glas) in Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany.
He has participated in a number of exhibitions in Germany, USA, and the Netherlands, including:Stani – Glass Tales – individual exhibition, Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, Michigan, USA (2009);Borowski Family, Rosenthal Gallery, Hamburg (Germany, 2008). He participates in the Annual International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition, organised by Habatat Galleries in the USA, as well as in important international art fairs, such as: Art Cologne – International Art Fair in Cologne; LINEART (Ghent, Belgium); PAN Amsterdam – Art and Design Fair (Netherlands); SOFA (Chicago, USA); Art Palm Beach, (West Palm Beach, Florida, USA). The artist cooperates with the Continuum Gallery in Königswinter, Germany.
His sculptures come to life in light. ‘Stani’ works in almost all hot and cold glass techniques, including pâte de vere, casting and hot blowing. He often combines glass with steel, bronze and wood. His funny and entertaining works are inspired by nature, in broad understanding of this notion.
Inside – Magdalena Tyc-Witwicka
15 October – 10 November 2016
TYC ART Gallery
Opening: 18 October 2016, 7:00 p.m.
Inside you will find that which is most interesting. Inside awaits that which is most important… Glass, unlike many other materials, also has an inside – and sometimes more important and striking than the surface. The perception of the interior, its diversity, requires attention and focus…
Let us look inside the glass, discover its colours, lights, shadows and specular reflections, hidden beneath the surface. Let us wander in the imagination through its vast spaces. Let us immerse ourselves in it, like in the depths of the ocean.
Magdalena Tyc-Witwicka
MAGDALENA TYC- WITWICKA
In 1993 she graduated from the Stanisław Kopystyński School of Fine Arts in Wrocław with specialising in applied forms (jewellery). Graduated from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the Academy of Fine Arts (currently: E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design) in 1999, from the class of Prof. J. Chodurski.
Since 1996 she has been running her own glass studio, which designs and implements unique objects: sculptures and glass paintings, utility glass, glazing, and interior decorative elements for residential and commercial use. Since 2014 she has been running the TYC ART studio/gallery in Wroclaw together with her sister, Małgorzata Tyc-Klekot.
She participated in 10 group exhibitions in Poland, including: “Szkło” (“Glass”) at the National Museum in Poznań (1999); “Design Młodych 2000” (“Young Design 2000”) at the Industrial Design Institute in Warsaw (2000); “Unikaty. Szkło polskie XXI wieku” (“Unique Glasses: the 21st-century Polish Glass”) at the Karkonosze Museum in Jelenia Góra (2009). Her works can be found in private collections in Poland and abroad.
Transfer – Antonina Joszczuk
17–31 October 2016
Centre for Applied Art Centre for Innovation – Academy of Fine Arts
Opening: 18 October 2016, 12:00 p.m.
An exhibition taking place as part of the Play with Glass – European Glass Festival.
While we sleep we discover a new aspect of ourselves. During the projection of the subconscious, the standards and rules observed by us in real life are often deformed and degenerated. Emotions suppressed during the day erupt with a vengeance. Honest, gentle and shy people turn into thieves, murderers, and exhibitionists. We cannot stop the transmission and data transfer flowing during sleep; we are forced to participate in them… I visualize in glass the duality of human nature, where information and images that are difficult to accept are concealed under the attractive coating of rationality.
Antonina Joszczuk
ANTONINA JOSZCZUK
In 2006 she graduated from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the E. Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. She has been employed there since 2009 as an assistant at the Studio of Art Glass Basics. In 2016 she received her doctorate.
She was a finalist of the 4th International Triennial of Silicate Arts, held by the Cultural and Conference Centre in Kecskemét (Kecskeméti Kulturális és Konferencia Központ) (Hungary, 2014) and the International Glass Prize Competition organised by GlazenHuis – the Flemish Centre for Contemporary Glass Art in Lommel (Belgium, 2015).
The artist also participated in two individual exhibitions in Poland: Zajęte – Tośka (Occupied – Tośka) presented by the SiC!, BWA Wrocław in 2008; But beavers have long been making better platters than you, my lady” showed in Zamostek Gallery of the Municipal Public Library in Opole in 2014. She also participated in 39 collective exhibitions in Poland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and Slovakia, including: Space Between Us at Kunsthaus, Wiesbaden, (Germany, 2012); Three Dimensions, at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko (2013);Poland – Glass made in Wroclaw at the Glasmuseum Alter Hof Herding, Coesfeld (Germany, 2014) and Process, at GlazenHuis, Lommel, (2015).
Her works are a part of the collection of the Cultural and Conference Centre in Kecskemét, as well as in private collections in Poland, Germany and USA.
She creates glass objects and installations. Sometimes she combines glass with plastic, polyurethane foam or silicone.
⇒ http://www.europeanglassfestival.com/