Murano lights up the world: eleven designer chandeliers on display in Venice

13 December 2024

“Murano lights up the world” is the title of the installation hosted under the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco in Venice and promoted by The Venice Glass Week and the Municipality of Venice. The title tells the story of the glassmaking tradition of Murano that truly lights up the world, not only in the literal sense, through the many chandeliers that decorate the most beautiful homes, but also in a symbolic sense, through the beauty of the glass objects that the furnace has offered to the world over the decades.

The installation is composed of eleven chandeliers, designed by as many designers and made by ten historic furnaces in the area with the coordination of the architect Matteo Silverio. The creatives involved in this second edition are Emmanuel Babled, Deborah Czeresko, Fiedler O Mastrangelo, Joseph Kosuth, Kengo Kuma, Philippe Starck and Aristide Najean, Marina and Susanna Sent, Arturo Tedeschi, Hans Weigand, Kimiko Yoshida, in addition to the students of the Abate Zanetti School of Murano.

The furnaces that produced the chandeliers are: Barbini Specchi Veneziani, Berengo Studio, Giorgio Giuman, ISS Abate Zanetti, Marina and Susanna Sent, Massimiliano Schiavon Art Team, Najean & Sy, NasonMoretti, Nicola Moretti + Vetrate Artistiche Murano, Salviati and Seguso Gianni Murano.

An exceptional meeting of design and production of the highest value that places on one side the most prestigious Murano furnaces and on the other designers of undisputed prestige, identified by the scientific committee composed of Rosa Barovier Mentasti, glass historian, David Landau, Trustee of Pentagram Stiftung, Chiara Squarcina, Scientific Director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the curators Mario Codognato and Alma Zevi. It is not, therefore, a simple installation but a research and narration project of one of the traditions at the same time the most ancient and most current.

These are eleven creatives with a well-defined profile and it is very interesting to discover how each of them has projected his style onto a tradition equally important as that of Murano.

An example of this meeting is the “dieXe” chandelier by Kengo Kuma made by Fornace Salviati: totally different from the classic chandelier, it is the mirror of Kuma’s design approach.

The subject is a repeated X, a symbol of interlocking and unity, a module that repeats itself as often happens in Kuma’s architectural works. While the color, Salviati peacock green, recalls the shades of the lagoon.

Unexpected is the work of Philippe Starck who in this project has put aside his more playful side to indulge in a moment of mystery: his chandelier, produced by Fornace Najean & Sy is called “Quadri” and is in dark amethyst color. Full of charm and contemporary elegance.

“Digit Light” is the name of the work by Emmanuel Babled in which the sphere is the protagonist, almost evoking the collection of Pyros vases already designed for Venini.

The name evokes an interesting aspect of this work, since the glass parts were made by the master Marino Gabrielli, NasonMoretti furnace, but the assembly order is identified randomly but precisely thanks to computer technology. In an unprecedented experimentation of craftsmanship and digital techniques.

Designed as artistic lighting for the holiday season, the installation will be open to visitors until March the 4th.

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