Glassworks

We (the Frauenau and Graz teams, as well as Troels and Susanne Jøker Johnsen from Bornholm) got to know how glass miracles are achieved in the Czech Republic at our second plenary meeting in February 2019 in Nový Bor. Welcomed with hospitality by Petr and Ondřej Novotný, we discussed our criteria and goals between glass interior design, studio glass and design. At Moser in Karlsbad and Ajeto in Lindava we saw fully occupied furnace halls. We were amazed how orders and resources are shared over short distances while still benefiting from the globalized customers of old Czechoslovakia. We learned how five young glass craftsmen create artworks for public spaces in Amsterdam and Dubai as a „collective”. We listened to Zdenek Kunc talk about his glassmaking trips, and we were amazed at Jiří Pačinek, who is planning his second small glassworks. We experienced how at HG Atelier Design furniture is made from cut glass, metal and light … so far we can only dream of all of this. Make miracles!

The story of the Meisenthal glassworks in Lorraine is a story of encouragement for the Bavarian Forest and for Glass Works! That is why a small delegation set out in summer 2019 to find out more on the spot.

Actually, the exhibition was supposed to wander through different European glass regions, just like the glassmakers portrayed in it. Actually … because Corona has also messed up our project plans.

The glass painter and glazier Conradus Glaser, who was born in the Bohemian Forest, travelled to work at the construction sites of large structures in today‘s Czech Republic, Germany and Poland in the 14th century. Monthermé – Porto Valtravaglia – Intra on Lake Maggiore – Varese – Wingen-sur-Moder – Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche were stops for the Walter-Griener family of glassmakers in the early 19th century. The glass artist Maria Koshenkova (born 1981), who was born in Russia and now lives in Denmark, works in various locations in Europe and overseas.
Glass and border crossing have always been linked. The European glass regions inspired each other. When Lisa started research at the University of Graz for the planned Glass Works touring exhibition in 2019, she was instantly fascinated by the skilled and artistically gifted border crossers who were behind this exchange: They were to become the centerpiece of the exhibition. In archives, museums, books, on trips to France, Eastern Bavaria and Northern Czechia, during cross-border phone calls, in e-mails and in interviews, glass people from the past and the present could be followed. In designing our touring exhibition, we trace their cross-border biographies of movement in pictures, texts, glasses and maps.