Le verre vivant. -Acquisitions récentes de la collection d’art verrier contemporain.
The texts in this interesting and fresh laid out catalogue are written by Chantal Prod'Hom, Director of MUDAC (Musée de design et d'arts appliqués contemporains); Adriano Berengo and Francesca Giubilei from Berengo Studio; Matali Crasset, designer; Susanne Jøker Johnsen, Director of European Glass Context Bornholm, and Bettina Tschumi, Curator of the Collection of Contemporary Glass Art at MUDAC.

The catalogue begins with the text in French, but, curiously, the large letter format of the French text is more difficult to read than the translated texts at the back in English and German.
The catalogue is well produced, and contains excellent full-page photos of the over 50 new pieces by designers and artists that were acquired by the Museum for its collection between 2006 and 2012.

The accompanying essays make for interesting reading, and deal with MUDAC's collection, the art of glass in history and in its development in more recent times, while the text by Tschumi provides additional background information on each of the works featured and on the designers and artists who produced them. Amongst those mentioned, there are particularly interesting sections on Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg, Pieke Bermans, Formafantasma, Barbara Nanning, Studio Job, Lino Tagliapietra, Vasicek Ales, Thomas Libertiny and Elias Bohumil Jr., to name just a few. The bibliography lists books and catalogues, and features biographical notes, on the individual designers and artists.

In The Wasteland of contemporary glass by Berengo/Guibilei, the text says: “We acknowledge that artistic creation requires expertise comparable in certain ways to that of an artisan, but we must also insist on the fact that artists give their products something that goes beyond technical ability, something that gives the object a unique and expressive quality.” And that quality is to be found in abundance in this catalogue and collection.
Angela van der Burght

See > the exposition Le verre vivant –Acquisitions récentes de la collection d’art verrier contemporain.