The new ‘it’ material
Last year, the Wall Street Journal dubbed glass ‘the art world’s buzziest material’ in an article on the substance’s recent rise to prominence in the art scenes of New York and other places. Due to its association with tacky pseudo-art, glass had a bad rep for quite some time but now, thanks to a new wave of creators, it’s becoming the new ‘it’ material. Having said that, it seems that Wrocław’s Play With Glass - European Glass Festival was ahead of its time when it was launched in 2012.
The event is unique not only because it has continually focused on a too-often-overlooked art form, but also because of its original format. Each year, the festival’s main exhibition (there are always other ones as well) consists exclusively of works created especially for it, following a given theme. This year the theme is ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde’, a reference to Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novella set in 19th-century London, in which the polite character of Dr. Jekyll keeps turning himself into the evil Mr. Hyde by drinking a mysterious potion.
Put the TV on
A neon red and blue skull with a mohawk, a quite spectacular piece by the German Bernd Weinmayer entitled Joker. Radiant Pegmatite, a snail-shaped work by Polish artist and art professor Barbara Zworska-Raziuk, which catches the eye with its dynamic form. Commercial Break, a Pop Art-styled TV set, another object prepared by the talented Kalina Bańka. These are just a few of the many pieces you can see at the festival’s main exhibition, held in the splendid Session Room at Wrocław Main Station. All in all, 18 artists from over a dozen countries were invited to participate in the show, selected by Anita Bialic, the festival’s initiator.
The organisers of Play with Glass gave the artists a creative direction for this year’s theme, specifying that they’re particularly interested in two things: a contemporary Dr. Jekyll, lonely in the virtual and industrial space of our times; and if whether had Dr. Jekyll turned into a Mrs. Hyde rather than a Mr. Hyde, would it have prevented the doctor from committing suicide as he does in the story. Understandably, the artists responded to these guidelines in their own, respective ways.
Wienmayer’s Joker is a cry for honesty in an era he sees as full of insincerity, where people are always putting on phony masks. This faceless, genderless skull points toward truthfulness as an answer to the contemporary troubles that concern its creator. Radiant Pegmatite has been juxtaposed with the following words of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: ‘the self is a synthesis [of two factors], one of which is constantly the opposite of the other’. Bańka’s Commercial Break implies that a modern-day Dr. Jekyll probably wouldn’t need any potion to undergo a vile transformation – all he’d have to do is put the TV on and let the stupefying message sink in.
Among the others taking part in the exhibition are Polish-Danish artist Janusz Walentynowicz whose works revolve around interpersonal relationships and Krista Israel from the Netherlands, creator of the intriguing Facing My Addiction. The Doctor Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde exhibit is on in Wrocław until 10th November after which it goes on a tour that will take it to Łódź, Legnica and Kraków.
Flamingos and Inselbergs
The programme of Play with Glass also includes other exhibitions and events such as glass-making workshops and guided tours of Wrocław concentrating on the city’s glass architecture. Sadly, these events will be over by the time this article is published. But fortunately, the additional exhibitions won’t. All of eleven exhibitions will be on in Wrocław until at least 28th October, some for much longer. They include Where Is My Paradise? by Japanese artist Shige Fujishiro whose objects employ the motif of the Garden of Eden, and Flamingos and Inselbergs by the Pole Stefan Sadowski, which presents masterful pieces highlighting the natural qualities of glass.
For more information about the festival, visit its English website at www.europeanglassfestival.com/en. Play with Glass is part of the programme of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016.