artists and designers, curated by artist and gallery
owner Jean blanchaert with the coordination of irina
eschenazi Focsaneanu.
2016 sees the birth and presentation at Design.Ve of
LUgiano, the two-faced chandelier, a work resulting
from an introspective journey that had led maestro
Fornasier to retrace his artistic career, from classical
origins to contemporary creations.
LUgiano, the work which - like the divinity with two
faces - is able to look at the past and the future of
an ancient history such as that which links Venice
with glass.
on the one hand, LUgiano is a tribute to the artistic
origins of its creator who, from a technical point of
view, was trained according to classic styles and
traditional Murano glass-processing techniques. on
the other, it highlights the results achieved, which
led to a new concept of lighting, that of “illuminating
opera”.
2016 ends with the participation of maestro Fornasier
in the “Murano Today. Glass emotions” exhibition at
the Murano Glass Museum, a major event organised
by the Venice Civic Museums Foundation and
curated by Gabriella belli and Chiara squarcina.
Maestro Fornasier participates in the exhibition
with two of his “illuminating Works”: a splendid red
LU chandelier and, for the first time presented to
the public, bolle di MetalLU, a real mixed-medium
installation made with metal and blown glass, which
surprises, fascinates and “illuminates” the observer,
in line with all maestro Fabio Fornasier’s work.
2017 is the year of Light blowing, an event of
particular importance for maestro Fabio Fornasier,
because it is organised at his personal showroom-
atelier on the occasion of the 1st edition of Venice
Glass Week. The intention of curators ilaria ruggero
and samantha Punis is to create “a multiple-voice
dialogue through the proposals of nine of the world’s
best glass artists/designers”.
2018 is the year of Gas in Murano: the Glass art
society is an organisation which aims to encourage
excellence, promote study and support the world
community of artists working with glass; for 40
years it has been organising annually a week of
events, exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations,
conferences and other initiatives in a location that is
always different, but always strongly related to glass
and its processing.
During Gas 2018, maestro Fornasier participates
in the Lux Lumen exhibition, organised by berengo
exhibition space and reserved for the works of the
most famous and appreciated lighting designers
worldwide.
2018 ends with the “The after” exhibition, organised
for the second edition of Venice Glass Week and
once again at maestro Fornasier’s new personal
showroom. it is an opportunity to present to the
public the new illuminating Work by Fabio Fornasier,
a work still in progress, which Fornasier has decided
to exhibit again in an embryonic state, reserving the
right to present the final engineered prototype at
sottovuoto, the 2019 edition of Venice Glass Week;
once again, the work of Fabio Fornasier continues to
amaze and fascinate, with a work never seen before,
marked by a strong scent of conceptional art and
harbinger of a denunciation of the problems in the
world of glass by maestro Fornasier.
There is at Murano, an island in the Venetian
lagoon, a craft tradition the like of which is very
hard to find anywhere else. For centuries master
glassmakers have handed down their secrets from
generation to generation to develop a history of great
success while earning the appreciation of people all
over the world. The art of making the glass chandelier,
designed to the most sophisticated and elegant
standards is carried out using consummately honed
technical skills and centuries’ old furnaces. These
signature works decorate the palaces and halls of
the international aristocracy and have never lost
with the passage of time the particular minutiae of
their delicate and decorative features. This is a most
fertile environment for the craftsman but one that
has also to operate in a market characterised by true
originality that is itself beset by many difficulties. in
this market manual dexterity must seek new forms
of expression and yet not lose of its own tradition.
innovation is needed for the creation of objects that
are new and exciting but that remain faithful to the
highest quality standards set by the heritage and
history of the island.
Fabio Fornasier is a child of the world of glass.
Following in the footsteps of his father Luigi, he
was very young to qualify as a master glassmaker
and since that time has never ceased to search for
new forms, colours, finishes and the best possible
rendition of his works. His production is highly
individual and recognisable, standing out from that
of other furnaces. He has harnessed the traditional
artisan skills of Murano and put them to the
service of contemporary artistic creativity to create
chandeliers that are true installations. Their sinuous
and elegant forms retain the typical mechanical
structure to which all the glass parts are applied in
ways that give life to completely new objects. His
greatest masterpiece to date is called LU-Murano, a
chandelier that is in constant transformation while
remaining wholly itself, different from all the others,
with a real personality of its own.
Fornasier has the curriculum of an established
artist and has held seminars at the Gerrit rietveld
academy in amsterdam, at the royal College of art
in London, at the Pilchuck Glass school Washington
D.C. and also in France and Denmark. He participated
in the Venice biennale in 2006 with his exhibit Vinum
Vitrum, a chandelier that recycled 180 bottles of
antica Fratta; in 2007 he won a major prize at the
Cheongju biennial in south Korea and in the same
year was awarded the Takeshi Kitano prize, winning
the 62nd international art Cinema exhibition of
Venice.
in 2010 LU-Murano was the poster image for Maison
objects in Paris and won the UK Lighting Design
award. The following year three of these were
bought by the Philips Design Museum for permanent
exhibition and in 2013 two large LUs were installed
at Villa bellagio, the world’s most famous casino in
Las Vegas.
again on 2013, in an exhibition at Liassidi Palace
Venice Fornasier presented his ilLusion: two LUs
within whose supporting structure speakers were
installed, successfully overcoming all the difficulties
involved in integrating these with an essentially glass
creation. The speakers were positioned opposite
each other to provide 360° sound. To call these simply
chandeliers would most certainly be reductive. They
are true sculptures where the master craftsmanship
reflects through glass and radiates through centuries
of tradition. There is here real innovation, at the same
time tasteful and unobtrusive, capable of generating
installations that amaze and also in this case please
the ear with the refined system of sound.
From 2013 to the end of 2015 Fornasier returns to
dedicating himself to research, experimentation
and the creation of prototypes; in 2016 he resumes
exhibition activity at Villa Vescovi, in the province of
Padua, taking part in the “GLass - art of Glass in italy
today” exhibition, a review of the most fascinating
works in glass realised by internationally renowned
