WONDERGLASS presents ABRAKADABRA

WonderGlass once again occupies the evocative 19th-century spaces of the Istituto dei Ciechi to showcase the new collective exhibition Abrakadabra, archived under the artistic direction of Jean Blanchaert – staging installations created by Paul Cocksedge, Tom Dixon, Elisa Ossino, John Pawson, Elena Salmistraro, studiopluz, Bethan Laura Wood, and Dan Yeffet. The family-run company, founded on Maurizio and Christian Mussati's passion for glass, Italian craftsmanship and the Venetian tradition, once again celebrates the authentic gestures of artisans and the inspirations of designers, as translated in the three techniques of master glassmakers - blown, fused and cast glassmaking - capable of creating magnificent and awe-inspiring worlds. Abrakadabra, a word which in the communal imagination signals mystical incantation, is here a tribute to the magic of glass, its transfigurative power and spectacular showmanship of manufacturing. The Fuorisalone exhibition is a rare opportunity and unique chance to intimately encounter the performative playfulness of material translated by the designers’ distinctive flairs. The curatorial vision takes spectators into fantastical dreamscapes – discovering worlds of light, colour and shadow play. Each work is created by experimenting with glass’ full potential, highlighting artistic expression and realizing true uniqueness in result. Artisanal production is seen as poetry; technical evolution reads as emotion – a dialogue of unlimited creativity in design. The inherent wonder in glass – such as its capacity to self-sculpt – replicates magical processes as part of its manufacture: the glassmakers, true glass wizards, give emotion a shape and, simultaneously, the installations become phantasmagoria of light, texture, and color. The group exhibition harmoniously combines the endless possibilities of cast glass seen in the hands of John Pawson and Tom Dixon; the contemporaneity of fused glass as explored by Elena Salmistraro; the sculptural nature of mold-blown glass by Dan Yeffet; the luminous filigree carapace, somewhere between myth and reality, by studiopluz; the surreality of colorfully textured glass floating tapestry by Elisa Ossino and the free-form illuminated triptych by Paul Cocksedge.