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Venetian glass
威尼斯玻璃制品业
Blow up
吹制的艺术
How high art will come to the rescue of Venice's glassblowers (fingers crossed)
高雅艺术拯救威尼斯玻璃吹制匠（祈求好运）
A pointedly new approach
新颖艺术
A CITY of enchantment, Venice is also besieged with problems. It is threatened by rising sea levels, polluted lagoons and a grim economy. And glassmaking, its most famous industry, has long been sinking along with the city.
威尼斯是魅力之都，同时也是问题之城。周边海平面升高，城内水质污染，经济形势严峻。威尼斯玻璃制造业最负盛名。长期以来，这个盛名之业也随威尼斯一起沉落。
Murano, an island near the city centre, has been home to glass factories for 700 years. But a shift in taste from elaborate, heavy glass to inexpensive, contemporary designs that go in the dishwasher has hurt local artisans. More than a third have shut up shop in the past decade. At the bottom end of the market Chinese glass now does the job more cheaply.
慕拉诺是城中心的一座小岛，是玻璃工厂之家，已有700年的历史。但是，人们的审美情趣发生了改变，从原来的工艺精湛的重质玻璃转向了能装进洗碗机廉价设计品。这种转变伤害了当地的工匠，近十年里关闭了三分之一多的店铺。中国的玻璃产业处于行业市场的底端，其产品更加廉价。
Venice's Chamber of Commerce estimates that 5m visitors a year trail down Murano's Fondamenta dei Vetrai , where the shop windows are stacked with glass gondoliers and grotesque glass clowns. But the profit margin for producing these gewgaws is very small. Gas prices have soared and some studios now find it more cost-effective to dispense altogether with manufacture. Some of Murano's glass studios are, however, turning to a new source of income: contemporary art. Across Venice this month no fewer than nine exhibitions feature contemporary artists using glass, only some of which are in this year's Biennale.
威尼斯商会估算，每年会有500万游客到慕拉诺的Fondamenta dei Vetrai观光，街道两旁有很多玻璃饰品商店，店外整齐地堆放着威尼斯船夫的玻璃像以及各种风格奇异、引人发笑的玻璃制品。但这些制品非常便宜，利润微小，因为燃气价格飙升。一些工坊发现，省去全部的手工程序更加划算。还有工坊转向了新的收入来源：现代艺术。本月，威尼斯有少于9家的展会，展出了艺术家用玻璃制成的现代艺术品。其中一些仅是在本年的威尼斯双年展3中展出。
Leading this local initiative is Adriano Berengo, who has divided his Murano studio in two. One side still churns out lamp stands; the other collaborates with artists such as Thomas Schütte and Tony Cragg to create works in glass in the same way that artists collaborate with a foundry. The deal is that two editions are created at Mr Berengo's expense: one is given to the artist, who can sell it, the other Mr Berengo keeps for himself. Occasionally a third edition is made and the proceeds are split between artist and studio. Mr Berengo has just completed two glass heads by Mr Schütte, which sold to a London-based Turkish collector for 200,000 ($261,000). “Cristina's Frozen Dreams” by a Catalan sculptor, Jaume Plensa, is on sale at the studio for 100,000. The glassmaker says his contemporary-art studio has an annual turnover of 6m. It beats making glass fish for 7 a throw.
此项运动是由阿德里亚诺·贝伦戈发起，他把自己的工坊一分为二。一个继续生产灯座；另一个与托马斯·舒特和托尼·克拉格合作，创作玻璃艺术品，跟铸造的工作方式相同。双方之间有一项协议：由贝伦戈出资生产双份艺术品，一份赠给作者本人，可以将其出售，另一份则由贝伦戈个人保留。有时，艺术品也会制造出第三份，所得利益就会均分。现在，贝伦戈刚刚完成两件舒特头像。它们以20万欧元卖给一位现居伦敦的土耳其收藏家。现在，贝伦戈工坊出售加泰罗尼亚雕塑家乔玛·帕兰萨的作品《克里斯蒂娜冰冻的梦想》，售价10万欧元。贝伦戈说，自己的现代艺术品工坊年营业额为600万欧元，鱼类玻璃制品每件7欧元。
Mr Berengo founded his studio in 1989. He got the idea of working with artists by following the example of Peggy Guggenheim who reportedly said, “Glass is too important a material to be left in the hands of glass masters.” It is a sentiment he has taken to heart. But rather than wait for artists to realise they want to make glass sculptures, Mr Berengo contacts them and dangles the prospect of coming to Murano to work with a glassblower. Few refuse the challenge. So far, he has worked with more than 160 artists including Cornelia Parker, Joseph Kosuth and Cai Guo-Qiang from Britain, America and China respectively.
贝伦戈工坊创立于1989年。艺术家佩姬·古根海姆经说过，在一些玻璃制作大师或店主的手中，玻璃的重要性远远超过材料。当时贝伦戈与他合作时得到了启发，把古根海姆的这句肺腑之言铭记在心。他没有等待，期待着艺术家们自发地用玻璃进行创作，而是与他们进行联系，说服他们来慕拉诺进行合作，阐明了前景。拒绝邀请的还不多。迄今，他已经和160多位艺术大师进行了合作，其中包括英国的科妮莉亚·帕克，美国的约瑟夫·科瑟斯和中国的蔡国强。
“Artists love new toys to work with,” Mr Berengo says. “What we have to do is make them think in glass.” The results can be seen in “Glasstress: White Light/White Heat”, an exhibition that is split between the Palazzo Franchetti and a converted studio space on Murano itself. It is a mixed bag. Some artists can indeed “think in glass”. Miroslaw Balka's piece comprises a row of shutters, in wood or opaque glass, that exude a ghostly and ominous air. Francesco Gennari has gone for triangular minimalism and Gavin Turk has subverted tradition by blowing a larger-than-life glass exhaust pipe. Others, such as Tracey Emin, have not got the hang of it at all—unless her cat is an ironic comment on the kitsch glass animals found in shop windows off San Marco.
“艺术家喜欢摆弄新玩意儿，”贝伦戈说。“我们的工作就是让艺术家站在玻璃的角度去思考。”从艺术展“玻璃应力：白光/白热”中可以看到成果。此次展览由弗兰凯蒂宫和威尼斯穆拉诺岛贝伦哥玻璃工坊共同承揽，展品无所不包。一些艺术家确实能“站在玻璃的角度思考。”比如，米罗斯瓦夫·巴尔卡的作品。他的作品用木材和不透明玻璃制成，散发着一种幽灵般的神秘气息。弗朗西斯科·真纳里的作品极简主义三角形。还有加文·特克，他用玻璃吹制了一个具有传奇色彩的排气管，颠覆了传统。其他人，比如翠西·爱美，她也理解了其中的真谛，否则她关于猫的作品就是圣马可附近商店橱窗里那些工艺拙劣的玻璃动物的讽刺。
Working with artists brings other benefits than just cash. It encourages studios to discover new techniques. The Schütte head, for example, had to be blown into a lost wax mould, and required 40 days' cooling before it was completed. When Mr Berengo was asked to create a piece that resembled green bamboo, he consulted the Venetian archives and discovered that in the 16th century glassmakers had created an effect called avventurina, which makes glass look green.
与艺术家合作带来的不仅是金钱。工坊受到了鼓励去发掘新技术。比如，制作舒特头像，要吹进一个失蜡模具里，需要40天的冷却才能成型。当让贝伦戈去创造一件类似于绿竹的作品时，他咨询了维也那档案馆后发现，16世纪的玻璃工匠们已经发明了一种叫avventurina的工艺，可以使玻璃发绿。
Historically it is through innovation and concentrating on quality that Murano has survived the previous challenges from other glassmaking centres. David Landau, who, with his wife Marie-Rose Kahane, was one of the founders of Le Stanze del Vetro, a glass museum which has also created a centralised archive of Murano studio designs, points out that almost every century something has altered the working pattern of Murano, starting in the 16th century when the rival Dutch glass industry made a leap forward by learning how to make glass for telescopes.
纵观历史，只有通过创新发明和专注质量，慕拉诺才经受处了来自其它玻璃制造中心的挑战，生存至今。Le Stanze del Vetro是一家玻璃制品博物馆，集中收集贝伦哥玻璃工坊艺术设计。大卫·朗道和妻子玛丽·加亨是博物馆的创始人之一。朗道说，16世纪，荷兰学到了如何用玻璃制造望远镜后，其玻璃产业产生了飞跃。此后，几乎每个世纪都会有某样东西改变慕拉诺的工作模式。
Mr Landau is convinced that the only way forward for Murano is to raise standards. Le Stanze del Vetro, which opened its new galleries on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore last September, has already made a mark. Its first show, by Carlo Scarpa, an architect who was also artistic director of the Venini Glassworks from 1932 to 1947, is travelling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in November. It is a reminder of Murano's pre-eminence as the backlash against cheap glass gains momentum. As Mr Landau says, it could be that Murano's future lies in its history.
朗道确信，慕拉诺在今后的进程是必须提升品质。去年9月，Le Stanze del Vetro在圣乔治马乔雷教堂小岛开办了新展馆，已经迈出了第一步。首次展出由斯卡帕主办。斯卡帕是位建筑师，曾担任威尼尼1932至1947年玻璃工艺品巡展的艺术总监。11月，展品将前往纽约大都会艺术博物馆。此次巡展提醒人们，慕拉诺的突出地位强烈反对了廉价的玻璃制品的发展势头。正如朗道所言，慕拉诺的未来可能根植于历史之中。
