Future Horizons
Glass in Contemporary Art

All of the works share a material that is rarely used in art: glass. It unfolds its specific effect through light and color, through haptic qualities and technical sophistication, a narrative potential, and its emotional aura. The exhibits on view, almost all of which belong to the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung collection, reveal the exciting artistic practices of working with glass – whether molded, blown, cut, uncut, freely formed, or sandblasted. They also point to future-oriented  developments in the combination of glass with photography, video, and performance, with poetry, light, electronics, and artificial intelligence.

The exhibition presents on two spatial levels works that have emerged from the studio glass movement as well as from the field of contemporary art . According to the curatorial concept, the selection of exhibits and the exhibition architecture open up two spaces for reflection and resonance: the BlackBox – spacious and dynamic, bright and energetic – contains the sculptures, mostly silver, transparent, white or black, freely arranged in the space, lying on the floor or suspended from the ceiling. Others, smaller in size, are arranged in an “endless” linear choreography: like SILVER LININGS. VISIONS, they appear on the reflective horizon.

The BlackBox FirstFloor surprises with the unfolding of objects in a rich palette of colors, whether blue, green, yellow, or pink, and with a different design: ABUNDANCE. EXPANSION OF THE MIND, could be the title of this space.

With their different energies and “temperatures,” both exhibition levels invite the audience to “wander,” to physically experience walking around: primarily to view the artworks, but also to relate to themselves – in relation to the work and in relation to others – and thus, through movement and reflection, to become part of the whole.

The exhibition design, created by Berlin-based architects Bruzkus Greenberg, takes advantage of the two exhibition spaces by using different color schemes – in the BlackBox, the colors range from silver to black, while in the BlackBox FirstFloor, the colors explode. On both floors, the gallery space ends with mirrored surfaces that double the perception of the rooms. The architects want visitors to look into the horizon and view the works in the flow of time, rather than just looking back. The mirrors in the display cases also seem to extend the sense of space beyond the walls of the gallery, playing with perspective and the perception of spatial boundaries. A seemingly endless niche along the right wall can be walked through, and works by individual artists are displayed in the gray-silver area with mirrors as a backdrop. The reflections invite visitors to view the individual objects in the context of the simultaneously visible space behind them. The mirrors create a boundless space. They transform the idea of the exhibition into architecture; they are a spatial metaphor for openness to future horizons.