The Dialogue of Fire. Ceramic and Glass Masters from Barcelona to Venice

The fire of contemporary art can burn anywhere, even in the design of everyday objects like plates, tea pots, drinking glasses, vases, decoration objects, souvenirs, or pillows. Fire is also the connecting element between the two materials used in the exhibition: ceramic and glass.

The Dialogue of Fire shows contemporary artworks in ceramic and glass fabricated respectively at the Artigas Foundation in Gallifa (Catalonia), and in Murano, through the collaboration between artists (the fire of ideas) and artisans (the fire of making).

The historical core of the exhibition is a collection of 30 ceramic plates made in Gallifa by acclaimed masters such as Antoni Tàpies, Eduardo Chillida and Barry Flanagan, and emerging artists from recent generations such as Frederic Amat, Isao and Jane Le Besque. Two other rooms of the 16th century Palazzo Tiepolo Passi (which is still the home of the noble family), host site-specific installations by two artists who have worked with glass throughout their career: an installation of glass pillows by Judi Harvest and a collection of unexpected objects transformed into glass by Silvano Rubino.

A fourth room connects the other three and represents the space where the Dialogue of Fire is embodied. Rubino and Harvest from the Venetian side, and Joan Gardy Artigas and Isao Llorens Ishikawa from the Catalan, present a collective installation that makes the four artistic personalities and the two materials interact with each other in an unpredictable way.

Everyday life has a fragile beauty, which can be easily broken or overshadowed by routine. The artists of The Dialogue of Fire use the fragility of glass and ceramic as a metaphor to enhance and capture this beauty. Delicate artworks populate the rooms of the inhabited palace, drawing the visitor’s attention to the fact that each object and each moment in our lives can forge a pathway of new meaning, through the fire of art.