The Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques, in Marseille’s Joliette district, has organised a magically colourful exhibition at the Musée Cantini with some hundred works by 16 glass artists.
CIRVA, a unique glass and art research centre masterfully managed by Isabelle Reiher since 2010, is a place where creative craftspeople, fine artists, designers and architects put their skills and ideas together. They come as residents, immersing themselves for a while in this modern alchemist’s cave and producing works on a par with the most extreme masterpieces of Art Nouveau glass. Craft workers, artists and scientists have always been fascinated by glass, its transparency, translucence and luminescence. In its mineral density and sharp fragility it preserves the mystery of inexhaustible virtues. Its scientific and technical properties are also constantly surprising us. Today, for example, it is used for electronic data transmission and has opened the way to nanoscience. The exhibition Une Maison de Verre at the Musée Cantini is presented like a series of installations. As we walk around, the glass masterpieces are as if mirrored by artworks carefully chosen from the museum’s collections. A kind of familiarity develops, though some works are better appreciated with knowledge of the craft. The monumental and the evanescent, the fluid and the opaque, the mysterious and the transparent are all exemplified. We sense how this freshness and crystalline purity have sprung from the action of fire and the human hand. Sixteen artists, each adding their glass bead, their philosopher’s stone.
« Une Maison de verre », jusqu’au 24 septembre,
Musée Cantini
19 rue Grignan, Marseille 6e. Tél. 04 91 54 77 75
www.cirva.fr
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