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Italian Glass Art Displayed in Berlin

With the support of the Italian Institute of Culture, the Bröhan Museum is hosting an exhibition dedicated to a colourful piece of Italian culture

October 14th, 2016
Chiara Ceccato, News from Berlin
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From the 14th of July to the 23rd of October, the Bröhan-Museum in Berlin’s Charlottenburg is hosting an exhibition entitled ‘Colori di Murano: Modern Glass Art from Italy’. Two weeks remain to take advantage of this event and explore a small part of Italy’s multidimensional culture.

‘Colori di Murano’, which means ‘colors of Murano’, refers to a particular form of art developed and kept alive in Venice, Italy. Its history dates back to 1291, when glassmakers moved to Murano, a group of islands in the Venetian lagoon, in order to put a stop to the fires caused by glass furnaces in the city of Venice.

Since then, the art of glass-blowing has been refined and passed from father to son, until it obtained legal protection as artistic heritage under the mark ‘Vetro artistico di Murano’.

The exhibition at the Bröhan-Museum in Berlin shows 220 glass objects from the 20th century, some of which were created by Fulvio Bianconi and Fratelli Toso, a family of glass artisans particularly famous for the creation of the ‘millefiori’ or ‘murrine’ technique.

In more recent years, the Venetian glass tradition has blended with artists and designers from other nations and art fields, such as Dale Chihuly, Stephen Rolfe Powell, and Robin Mix, which has, in turn further developed the art of glass-blowing.

The aim of the exhibition is to promote understanding about the process of producing and designing glass art. Murano glass is an example of the preservation of cultural traditions in the age of globalization, a time of harmonious coexistence between traditions and the influence of other cultures.

This initiative is supported by the Italian Institute of Culture in Berlin, a part of the cultural office of the Italian embassy, which also presented the exhibition ‘Glass Art from Murano: Masterpieces from the Sammlung Holz’. ‘Colori di Murano’ was also made possible by Lutz H. Holz, who contributed pieces to the collection and will offer a guided tour of the exhibition on the 13th of October.

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News from Berlin