For its third edition, “Strasbourg, Glass Capital” becomes the “International Glass Bienniale”. With more than 50 000 visitors in 2007, this event has become an unavoidable rendez-vous for amateurs of glass. While the use of the medium glass by the artists is booming, the International Glass Bienniale 2009, which presents 14 exhibitions in and around the city of Strasbourg, turns determinedly to contemporary art with artists such as Yves Chaudouet, Rachel Maisonneuve and also Jean-Pierre Umbdenstock.
Lino Tagliapietra Glass Sculpture Installation Helier Gallery
This event, initiated by ESGAA (European Studio Glass Art Association), presents the works of artists using glass as the main medium or sometimes associated with stone, metal has or other materials.
The second big novelty of 2009 resides in the first edition of the International Strasbourg Glass Prize. This prize aims at rewarding artists working the glass themselves. It has attracted more than 90 participants from Europe, Africa, America or Asia. The work of the prize-winner, Nicolas Morin, was rewarded among 130 works received. His prize will attributed on October 7th and he will be exhibited during the International Glass Biennale 2009.
• Solo exhibitions in prestigious locations:
Yves Chadouet at the Musée Zoologique, Rachel Maisonneuve in the Saint-Maurice church, Mati Negreanu at the Conseil régional d’Alsace, Jean-Pierre Umbdenstock at the Cour des Boecklin, Jörg Zimmermann at the Saint-Louis Crystal Museum and Bernard Dejonghe at the Chaufferie.
• A group exhibition of young talents:
Glass Today, Generation Without Borders 2009 at the Conseil général du Bas-Rhin.
• Exhibitions of international artists in places of art and design: Barbara Nanning at Cor+Interlübke, Julie Six and Véronique Sablery at the Bamberger Gallery and a group exhibition at Aktuaryus Gallery
• An exhibition of the best proposals received for the International Strasbourg Glass Prize at the CIC Est Bank and Nicolas Morin’s Prize-giving Glasswork, an age-old craft, initially mastered by craftsmen, has developed into art in the 20th century. The beginning of the century is marked by a permanent collaboration between craft and industry grace, especially thanks to French glassworkers. At the turn of the 1960’s,, this artistic medium became the favorite material for some artists, who were real artistic sculptors both in then Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) and in the United States. Today artists from around the world use this material which resembles nothing else. These conjurors who transform silica into a work of art, further the fashion of the ” Studio Glass Movement “, which was born forty years ago from the creativity and willpower.
As much from the design as the technical aspects, the elaboration of sculptures by fusion, modeling or glass-blowing, has become an incredibly wealthy source of creation. Dali, Picasso, Cesar, Ernst, Dmitrienko, or more recently Rauschenberg have successfully experimented with glass. The French poet, art critic and diplomat Paul Claudel wrote ” I have always liked glass so much; it is a kind of solidified, tangible, leaking away through our fingers, durably fragile, with a spiritual content”.
Sculptural artists and alchemists, have created works of miscellaneous sizes, structures and colors. Insufficiently known in Europe, “glass sculptures” have not yet gained full recognition. However glass now is exhibited in numerous museums and foreign foundations today. American, European and Asian have been developing ” Studio Glass ” today.
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