In 1989, Adriano Berengo opened the doors of his furnace in Murano, to “make artists think in glass”. Inspired by the collaboration between Peggy Guggenheim and Egidio Costantini, who invited great artists like Picasso and Chagall to create glass artworks in Venice during the 1960s, Berengo, cultured and far-sighted, founded Berengo Studio: a space where the Muranese glass-making tradition marry the projects of contemporary artists. On the one hand, it is a place where the most skilled craftsmen have pushed themselves to their limits, on the other it is a place where artists are able to explore new expressive fields.
Glass has been changing contemporary art, while contemporary art is transforming the art of glass – finding innovative techniques, in a never-ending dialogue. The art foundation Fondazione Berengo and the international exhibition Glasstress are the other components of the Berengo system. In more than thirty years, dozens of international artists have worked with glass here: among them, Ai Wei Wei, Tracey Emin, Tony Cragg, Jannis Kounellis, Josef Albers, Mario Schifano, Jan Fabre and Vik Muniz.
