The French artist Loris Gréaud will take over an abandoned glass furnace on an island in the Murano district of Venice—famous for producing elaborate glassware—during the biennale this year (13 May-26 November). Gréaud plans to show 1,000 glass pieces made from hourglass sand. The exhibition, called The Unplayed Notes Factory, will be organised by Nicolas Bourriaud, the former director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
The project will take place on the Campiello della Pescheria site, which has been closed for more than 60 years. “On this occasion, the former glass furnace will be secretly revived and will play host to a whole new trade: an unofficial production line,” says a press statement. “I will reactivate the glass factory and its production. The continuous performance of the glass gaffers [blowers] on site will soon turn into a strange ‘tableau vivant’,” Gréaud adds.
The installation is sponsored by Noirmontartproduction, the exhibitions and fabrication company founded by the former dealer Jérôme de Noirmont, and the private Paris-based foundation, Fonds de Dotation Emerige.
The exhibition is part of the Glasstress initiative organised by the Fondazione Berengo, which encompasses this year another show of glass works by 27 contemporary artists, including Ugo Rondinone, Ai Weiwei, and Laure Prouvost, at the Palazzo Franchetti.
