There are billions of objects made by glass makers during the past five thousand years. Each one of them has a reason to have been born. I believe the first, ancient glass makers to have been very much alike us – curious, experimenting, trying the limits of the material. Their technical achievements were not based on the thorough scientific knowledge and perfect measuring devices we possess of today but on visual sense, past errors, venturous findings; rules were set upon practical experience.
Alongside all that, each ancient item we admire today fulfilled a particular role – either carried a narrative, conferred status, acted in the role of propaganda or politics, displayed virtuosity of making or were once utilitarian everyday objects. Functional, ornamental, religious … artistically perfect in appearance and meaning.
The theme of the exhibition INTERPRETATION called the participants to find a historical glass object that somehow had a resonance for them, and to bring it into focus once again. Research the object, find out as much as possible about it and document the findings for exhibiting them together with their own object – the INTERPRETATION – that brings the historical piece into a new light, new era, transfers them into a contemporary context.
21 glass students from 8 countries – Algeria, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia are participating. The historical objects chosen belong to a vast period from Ancient Egypt to the first half of the twentieth century. The choices made are exciting, both in content, visual image and angle but also techniques. The same may, with confidence, be said about the new objects. Lots of different starting points, interpretations of ancient techniques and, most significantly, conciseness and clever connectedness with bygone times.
The exhibition is concurrently part of the educational project “Meeting Point IV – back in Estonia”, initiated in 2006 in Tallinn and afterwards taken place also in Nancy (CERFAV) and Amsterdam (Gerrit Rietveld Academie).
This year’s project focuses on the three Baltic countries and Poland, also including the exchange students studying in Tallinn in 2014/15.
Mare Saare Curator