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The IGS 2018 has entered history alongside other eighth anniversaries
Videomapping for the opening ceremony of IGS on Thursday October 4, 2018
Distribution of IGS participants in metallurgy and workshops
Follow the map of the Glass Trail
Several routes of the Glass Trail are prepared for the IGS 2018 visitors on Saturday October 6th. Using the map, visitors can head for an unusual show to Lindava, Kunratice u Cvikova, Polevsko, Skalice u České Lípy or Kamenický Šenov. There will be special IGS shuttle buses taking visitors to those locations, following four routes starting from one common bus stop in Smetanova St. Early-birds might take the first ones going at 8 am. All glassworks and workshops that are going to present work of well-known artists will be open until 3 pm. Glass schools in Nový Bor and Kamenický Šenov will also open their doors to visitors t o show e veryone that there is still future for Czech glass in them. Visitors will also have the opportunity to visit museum, glass studios and galleries focusing on glass. There will be a walking path following those nearby the Square Míru. A full day program is prepared at the square to enrich the experience from the Glass Trail with a bit of culture. Last shuttle buses will run from 3 – 4 pm. As buses do not have regular timetables, it is necessary to wait at the designated station for their arrival. Tired glass journeyers can refresh themselves at the Square Míru with a rich program going on till midnight – adrenaline slackline exhibition, dance show, movie excursion into the IGS history or videomapping focusing on significant historical anniversaries ending in number 8.
Point and Kolektiv are planning a visual surprise
Have you ever wondered how good a 3D graffiti would look like? Actually, we have had not, but Zdeněk Kudláček from our Kolektiv Ateliers did! He has teamed up with probably the most famous Czech street & urban artist Jan Kalab and since then, the prototype of Point Beast Spaceship glass sculpture for this year's IGS has grown slowly under their hands. You can look forward to it as well as to the visual surprise from Jan alias Point, which will be created during the Symposium in the exterior of the Kolektiv premises.
#3Dgradfiti #graffitisculpture #soulofgraffiti #kolektivateliers
IGS Hall of Fame
This year Jiří Šuhájek has been chosen to enter the International Glass Symposium IGS Hall of Fame and it will happen at the opening ceremony of this year's IGS. On the same day, this world-famous glass artist will also present his fascinating art of shaping hot glass at the glassworks of the Glass School in Nový Bor. During the IGS, he will be working on his piece at Preciosa Lighting in Kamenický Šenov, where general public can see him during the Open House on Saturday 6th October. Another of his monumental figures of glass and iron will come to life there.
Variegation at the 13th IGS
The invitation of two exceptional artists that have had nothing to do with glass yet will certainly bring some excitement to the IGS this year. Ivan Mládek, jazz musician, humorist and painter, and street artist Point will both be working at the workshops of Kolektiv Ateliers. It is hard to imagine two such different personalities working with glass at one place. Besides them, we will have the chance to see Petr Nikl, one of the founding members of Tvrdohlaví Art Group, painter, illustrator and performer, at work in Lasvit-Ajeto glassworks; and Pavel Kopřiva, multimedia artist and at the same time the director of the glass school in Kamenický Šenov working in Preciosa Lighting.
dr. Milan Hlaveš, Museum of Decorative Arts, IGS Curator
Photo:
Ivan Mládek, LP cover of Banjo Band Ivana Mládka, 1977, photo archive
Jan Kaláb (Point), Madison Ave, 2014, photo from the archive of the artist
Success of a participant of 13th IGS 2018
Æsa Björk, an Iceland artist living and working in Norway, has won the Toyama International Glass Exhibition 2018. This year’s participant of IGS (at Kolektiv Ateliers) won the Grand Prize for her work Shield II, created together with Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir. In this work, they responded to brain activities they have been studying together with neurologists on a long-term basis and are successful in trying to transfer their records into their glass and sound installations.
dr. Milan Hlaveš, Museum of Decorative Arts, IGS Curator
Photo:
Æsa Björk, Shield II, 2018, photo from the archive of the artist
13th IGS and designers
Not only orthodox glass artists were part of several of the last IGS symposiums. This year will not be different. Jan Němeček and Michal Froněk, representatives of Studio Olgoj Chorchoj and at the same time professors at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, will make use of the capacity of Preciosa Lighting in Kamenický Šenov. Jiří Přibyl and Martin Imrich from Koncern Design Studio will work at an extraordinary glassworks in Polevsko – Ave Clara. In Lasvit-Ajeto in Lindava we will have the opportunity to see Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler, artists of mischer´traxler studio (Austria), and also Eva Eisler, a well-known jewellery artist.
dr. Milan Hlaveš, Museum of Decorative Arts, IGS Curator
Photo:Koncern Design: Fake it Easy, 2009, photo by Filip Šlapal
13th IGS and the classics of Czech glass art
IGS cannot take place without the performance of internationally recognized Czech glass artists. This year we have chosen Ivana Šrámková (who will work at Egermann Glassworks), Alena Matějka and Vladimir Klein (TGK), prof. Marian Karel (Kolektiv Ateliers), Aleš Vašíček (AZ Design) or Michal Machata (Glass Studio Novotný). One of the IGS highlights is certainly going to be the opening performance of Jiří Šuhájek, a new member of the IGS Hall of Fame, at Glass School in Nový Bor (4th October). He will then work for two days in Precisosa Lighting in Kamenický Šenov.
dr. Milan Hlaveš, Museum of Decorative Arts, IGS Curator
Photo:
Ivana Šrámková, Vase, 2016, photo by Gabriel Urbánek
Youth at the 13th IGS
The International Glass Symposium IGS is not meant just for well-known, established and famous artists. Also the new and young generation regularly has an opportunity to excel. This year in Crystalex we will see Polish artist Aleksandra Ola Stencel, a designer of Slovak glassworks RONA from Lednické Rovne, and an unconventional experimentalist Lukáš Kalivoda. At Ave Clara it will be a promising artist Irena Czepcová, designer of glassworks in Janštejn in Vysočina (Highlands Region). Glass School in Nový Bor will host already internationally known glass engraver Pavlína Čambalová and Ondřej Novotný who will work alongside his father, glassmaker Petr Novotný. Dalibor Šípek, son of a designer Bořek Šípek, will pick up his father’s work at glassworks Anežka. Glass studios of glassmaker Jiří Pačinek in Cvikov and Lindava will welcome descendants of two famous glass artists that passed away last year – Petr Šetlík, grandson of René Roubíček, legend of the Czech glass, and Martino Signoretto, grandson of Pino Signoretto, Murano glass master.
dr. Milan Hlaveš, Museum of Decorative Arts, IGS Curator
Photo:
Lukáš Kalivoda, photo from the archive of the artist
Stars from abroad at the 13th IGS
It is hard to name all well-known, or even famous, names of foreign artists that will come to Nový Bor first week in October 2018 in the occasion of the 13th International Glass Symposium IGS. Let’s try to mention at least some that will participate in the symposium at different glassworks and workshops which are part of the IGS organizing team. TGK: Silvia Levenson (Argentina/Italy) and Prof. Michael Rogers (USA), AZ Design: Barbara Nanning (Netherlands), Glass Studio Novotný: Prof. Inguna Audere (Latvia), Nick Mount (Australia), Raven Skyriver (USA) and Louis Thompson (England), Preciosa Lighting: Karen LaMonte (USA/Czech Republic), Glass School Nový Bor: Mark Angus (England/Germany), Glassworks Slavia: Stine Bidstrup (Denmark), Markku Salo (Finland) and sculptor Lars Widenfalk (Sweden), Šípek Team: Emma Woffenden (England) and Masahiro Sasaki (Japan), Ave Clara: Axel T. Schmidt (Germany), Crystalex: Jeffrey Sarmiento (The Philippines/USA/England), Lasvit-Ajeto: John Kiley (USA), Glassworks Pačinek: Paul DeSomma (USA), Egermann: Gordana Turuk (Croatia/Slovakia), Kolektiv Ateliers: Æsa Björk (Iceland/Norway).
dr. Milan Hlaveš, Museum of Decorative Arts, IGS Curator
Photo:
Masahiro Sasaki, photo by Milan Hlaveš
Artists have already begun working on the 13th IGS
From the outside, it might seem that the 13th International Glass Symposium IGS takes place in Nový Bor and its surroundings just during the official IGS days – from 4th to 7th October 2018. However, its preparation at regular meetings of organizers and representatives started more than a year ago. In these summer months, there are also intensified negotiations between individual glass companies, institutions and artists. They are discussing individual projects, preparing material, molds and tools. Some artists even visit personally the glassworks they will be working at. Everything suggests that once again IGS will be an exceptional meeting of international artists and Czech masters of glass.
dr. Milan Hlaveš, Museum of Decorative Arts, IGS Curator
Photo:
Silvia Levenson, Strange Little Girl #6, 2013, photo by Milan Hlaveš
IGS glassmakers will be working under the auspices of the President of Liberec Region
Martin Půta, the President of Liberec Region, has granted to IGS organizing team the patronage over the International Glass Symposium. In addition to a significant financial support of 500,000 CZK, which has been already agreed upon in contract with Liberec Region, the patronage brings also a great moral encouragement to the local glassmakers. It is a signal to all glass companies which participate in IGS, and at the same represent the most widespread industry in the region, that preservation and development of the traditional glass craft is perceived as essential not only for Nový Bor, but also for Liberec Region and the whole Czech Republic. The attitude of the Liberec Region management is very important to the organizing team for it shows appreciation of the uniqueness of this working meeting of glassmakers from all over the world, not only on the content side, but also appreciation of the cooperation of the public and private sector on its organization.
GLASS UNITES US!
From 4th to 7th October, the town of Nový Bor will once again welcome glassmakers from the Czech Republic and abroad at the International Glass Symposium IGS 2018. In four days, they will bring their ideas to life together at glassworks and refining workshops. Since the first symposium in 1982, it will be the thirteenth time that the glassmakers meet in Nový Bor. Each of these meetings of glassmakers, artists and designers was unique, had its own specifics, brought news and records, however, their common feature was the opportunity for glassmakers and artists to meet in a creative collaborative environment, to exchange views and experience, to gain and fortify contacts and friendships. It will not be otherwise in 2018. Actually, that is what the 13th IGS motto aims to express too – “Glass unites us”. It not only expresses the union of glassmakers across the world, but also the cooperation of organizing subjects. For the fourth time, Nový Bor is the main organizer, joined by glass companies, glass schools and museum institutions as co-organizers.
The town of Nový Bor boasts of its attribute “Town of Glass” practically from the time of its foundation more than 260 years ago. As such, it is also known abroad. There are about 120 glass companies in the town and its surroundings. The most important of them are of course participating in the organization of IGS. For local region, glass is a phenomenon which has made it famous and still represents it worldwide. Each IGS turns Nový Bor with its 12,000 inhabitants into a glass capital of the world. Therefore IGS has a great importance for art glass; it supports the image of Nový Bor, Liberec Region and the Czech Republic, which are perceived as significant glass destinations. It has a great importance for the local glass production, promotion of Czech glass and Czech glass craft in the worldwide context. Since 1982, about 600 artists from the Czech Republic and abroad have participated in the symposium. They presented themselves through their work to professional and general public. Cooperation of foreign artists and Czech glass craftsmen who bring their ideas to life is also of a great significance. Aims and objectives of the symposium are therefore clear – besides presenting prominent glass artists of the whole world, it is to introduce excellent local glassblowers, cutters, engravers, mold makers and of course companies who employ them, to keep the tradition alive and to ensure the future of this great phenomenon – Czech Glass at the same time. Glass artists from around the world, merchants, gallerists and art theorists come to the town and then share their experiences and impressions of Nový Bor abroad. IGS has no match worldwide. Its size and content makes it the most significant event of its kind; also there is no such concentration of technologies and glass companies anywhere in the world. The town of Nový Bor stands at the front of all organizing subjects for the fourth time. In 2009 it took over the tradition from Crystalex, its founder, as a result of crises that affected the glass industry.
Without a significant share of the co-organizers, who provide their own productions, and partners, who support the symposium financially, it would be impossible for the event to take place. The organizing subjects help with the organization, but at the same time invest a considerable amount of money from their budgets to provide the artists with a full service, comfort and a perfect background to create their glass artifacts. Among the partners of the symposium are prominent regional glass companies, museums, municipalities and public administration institutions. IGS 2018 co-organizers are glass companies AVE CLARA, AZ-DESIGN, CRYSTALEX CZ, EGERMANN, JIŘÍ PAČINEK, KOLEKTIV ATELIERS, LASVIT AJETO, PRECIOSA, GLASSWORKS SLAVIA, NOVOTNY GLASS, ŠÍPEK TEAM and TGK, together with Glass Museum Nový Bor and glass schools in Nový Bor and Kamenický Šenov. Representatives of all these subjects form a team whose aim is to provide all IGS participants and guests with unforgettable experiences, to contribute to preservation and development of the traditional craft of the glassmaking region and its promotion in the world. The head of the team is Jaromír Dvořák, Mayor of Nový Bor, as the director of the symposium, followed by Alena Forgáčová, secretary of the symposium. Other members of the team are Eliška Vavříčková, Glass Museum, Magdaléna Riedelová, Symposium Secretariat and IGS curator Milan Hlaveš, the Chief Curator of the Glass and Ceramics Collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. This cooperation is possible thanks to the partnership of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and IGS, and great thanks for that belongs to the museum director Helena Koenigsmarková. LASVIT is a dominating partner because it not only stands among the organizing subjects, but also significantly supports IGS 2018 financially. It fulfills all the organizational and financial tasks assigned to organizing entities, but it also provides funding for joint activities such as publicity, official social events, or a symposium cultural program. Another important partner of this year's IGS is the Liberec Region. It not only provided a financial support, but also a moral one in the form of patronage of Martin Půta, the President of the Liberec Region. Taking over the patronage, the president of the region has sent out a message to all the organizers that he supported their work and considered it to be useful and beneficial to the entire Liberec Region. Significant financial support was provided also by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic as a part of the subsidy for festivals, and Foundation of ČEZ in their support of the regions.
Already more than 50 artists from Europe and overseas, representing various art fields – glass and conceptual art, design, architecture or fashion, have promised their participation. With great sadness, we accept the fact that at IGS 2018 we will not see a glass legend René Roubíček who was, together with his wife, the first artist to be introduced to the Hall of Fame during the previous symposium. This tribute to legends belongs in 2018 to Jiří Šuhájek who will be introduced to the Hall of Fame at IGS opening ceremony at Nový Bor Theatre on Thursday, October 4th. This choice is hardly a surprise since we have been seeing Šuhájek’s name among the participants of the symposium regularly since its foundation. His art work is also honored by graphic studio Revolta that has chosen his “Ferdoraj” for this year’s IGS visual style.
IGS 2018 is a signal and clear message to the whole world that Nový Bor is still a place where glass production and art is still a living unique phenomenon. Come and see for yourself in Nový Bor in October that Czech glass is alive and that GLASS UNITES US!
RNDr. Alena Forgáčová
for the secretariat of IGS 2018