GEACOLOR GAE AULENTI

“Apparently casual silhouettes with irregular protrusions meet sleek surfaces to admire with the eye and caress with the hand. They stem from special techniques – “Mano Volante” and “Riporto a Caldo” – by which colour is hot applied and then guided into position and shaped. This vase by Gae Aulenti is like a thousand vases in one: it changes with light, perspective and the eyes of the viewer.”

Career of Paolo Venini

In 1921 Venini and Cappellin opened a glassworks on the islands of Murano, the historic glass production centre in the Venice lagoon, under the name of Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Cappellin Venini & C. With Luigi Ceresa and Emilio Hochs as investors, they agreed to buy Andrea Rioda’s recently closed Murano glassworks, hire the blowers of the former company and keep Rioda himself as technical director of the company.

Their plans quickly went wrong, however, when Rioda died before production began. Many of the leading glassblowers decamped to found a competitor company under the name of Successori Andrea Rioda. However, the company was also launched successfully and prospered with the support of the founders’ distribution contacts in Milan. The company also benefited from a commitment to introducing new and modern design concepts.

Following controversy, Cappellin withdrew from the firm in 1925, taking most of the company’s master glassmakers and launching a competitor. Venini reorganised with new blowers and, first as Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. and then as Venini & C., achieving a leading design position among Murano companies.

RODOLFO DORDONI: He graduated in architecture in 1979 from Milan Polytechnic and, after various experiences in architecture studios, he dedicated himself to industrial design and to the identification of image strategies from product to communication. In the course of collaborations with various companies, as a consultant and designer, he has simultaneously created architectural projects, exhibitions, events and public spaces. His first collaboration with VENINI dates back to 1995, with objects and lamps.

THE COLLECTION: Once upon a time in the Fornace there were three works by Rodolfo Dordoni. Gifts in their glass robes, they went around the world.

MIXED TECHNIQUE: This is the definition given to the union of several techniques, used by the master to create objects in precious glass with particular characteristics: the balanced mixture of several processes gives a strong personality to the work and enriches it in its identity.

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