The light fantastic

As the last glimmers of sunlight gently caress St Mark’s Square, they bathe 12 immense glass chandeliers in gold Then, as darkness falls, the chandeliers light up, glowing seductively in the arched passages of the Procuratie Vecchie.  These go far beyond the traditional Christmas decorations that grace British high streets. Each is a specially commissioned design by a leading international artist and specifically created to welcome Christmas to Venice.

Each artist has worked in collaboration with one of Murano’s renowned glass furnaces, blending centuries-old craftsmanship with contemporary artistic practice to create the chandeliers, which range from the more traditional to the strikingly modern. Writhing arms of glass, budding glass flowers, sit alongside strange geometric forms. Transparent glass holds its own next to ruby red and brilliant blues.

The ‘switch on’ on November 21st marked the Feast of the Madonna della Salute, which celebrates the transition from autumn to winter. This, the third edition of Murano Illumina il Mondo (Murano Lights Up the World) runs till the 1st March 2026 and turns St. Mark’s Square into a glowing gallery of glass art. It is organised by the Comune di Venezia and The Venice Glass Week, with the support of the Camera di Commercio Venezia Rovigo. It intended to cheer visiting Venetians and tourists alike, but has a serious cultural and economic intent; to acknowledge and celebrate Murano’s skill and creativity.

According to locals the lighting of these chandeliers is not just another artistic event, but a statement that despite 700 years of challenges, Murano glass remains alive, relevant, and globally influential. It celebrates the resilience of Murano furnaces, the precision of maestri vetrai, and “the unique bond between Venice and luminous beauty.” Venice after all is a city of light, with an identity expressed not in neon or electric, but by glass, fire, reflection and skill.

“Journalists usually come to Venice when something is wrong, to talk about fake Murano glass or pollution,” explains Matteo Silverio, the project manager of Murano Illumina il Mondo  “This is our way to say no, we are still alive. Murano gives back to the world. It's still active, and willing to test new methods, or to experiment and to go beyond what is its heritage. It also gives back to the city and its residents. We try to make it even more beautiful thanks to Murano glass.”

Intriguingly the artists, (maybe not quite as international as is intended,) are not paid, neither are the Murano furnaces, who self-select and effectively subsidise the event. The majority of artists have little experience of glass and whilst a few chose a particular furnace, it is Matteo Silverio’s job to match artist to glass maker. “I'm trying to mediate between the artist and the glass factory.” As an architect his responsibilities include the technical and safety implications. He analyses the artists’ first sketches and helps solve any practical problems. Some artists like F. Taylor Colantonio with his Pool of Light, a wheel with attached glass objects andRu Xiao Fan whose light Intérieur/Extérieur, looks like a series of glass lobster pots, make several visits to Murano, others like Joana Vasconcelos whose Cuore Infinito, appears like an upside down red spider, but is in fact a luminous heart pulsing with light and colour, do it all long distance.

For glass artist Simone Crestani his Primavera d’Oriente project, in collaboration with Berengo Studio, is quite close to home. A glass artist for the last 25 years, he something of a maverick, having his own studio, founded in 2010, about an hour away from Venice. Murano has always been fiercely proud of its reputation and somewhat unforgiving of other glass centres.

“I’m still the black sheep. There is competition. To be honest, I had a hard time in the past to be accepted, it's been quite a long journey. I quite enjoy being the black sheep, so that's fine.” He is a disrupter of convention. “I’m always kind of breaking the rules, so I do not fit very well in the tradition. I like to pick up the tradition, but then give it a twist in a contemporary way. I think being outside the island is quite beneficial to keep your mind open. It works well for me.” His disruption in this case started with declining the offer to have the complete work made in Murano. “I am used to doing the pieces myself. I never commission someone else.”  He selected Adriano Berengo as his furnace partner, Berengo being the person who pioneered working with artists in an attempt to promote the creativity of Murano.

Crestani showed his initial sketches to Adriano Berengo and agreed that Berengo should make the central metal core of the chandelier and the more traditional arms under his direction, whilst he would make his more signature tangle of bloom-like elements. The chandelier is asymmetrical. Indeed it seems to be more than a little tipsy; its seven long wavy arms, set askew, in some ways traditional, but in their asymmetry definitely not. “It is like a traditional Venetian chandelier with a glass branch of blossom. My branch pulls the old Venetian style chandelier off centre.” Chandelier arms are normally made over a former, but here the arms were made in freeform. Crestani made the blooms with a bench torch, (flame working technique,) using borosilicate glass (not a Venetian material,) which is lighter than normal glass because it contains no lead.) “It’s a paradox,” explains Adriano Berengo. “The lighter glass actually looks like it is pulling down, unbalancing the heavier glass. It's a kind of joke, a fantastic piece.”

Crestani’s work always reflects his interest in nature and this work stems from an exhibition he held in Paris. "I do love nature, and I do love technique in glass. There was a collection of goblets that I called Fashion of Venice. It was really about taking the iconic Venetian glass works from the Renaissance and giving them a contemporary twist. Working on the most incredible pieces from the past, working on the technique to bring them alive, but then adding something that has a concept. I did that for this chandelier. I took a form that we already know, that is beautiful, amazing, but with a contemporary idea we give it a twist. I am trying to say that we need beauty, we need care to find a balance, when we constrict nature for our purposes. If we do it in the right way, we can find the balance.” Indeed it is a significant environmental commentary for those in the know, but still intriguing and seductive for those who don’t.

So what does collaborating with international artists bring to making Venice and Murano shine?  Adriano Berengo who founded his eponymous studio in 1989, was the first in Murano to invite leading international artists to make art in glass. He saw it as a way of reinvigorating glass traditions and helping to halt Murano’s decline. He was originally ridiculed, but is now much emulated, as Murano Illumina il Mondo demonstrates. “When you ask an artist, the artist invests into the material, all their spirit, creativity, sensitivity; you learn a lot from artists. If you give an artist a possibility to use a material, to have people at their service, then, they start to play. And from the play, you can get incredible pieces, incredible work. The dynamic partnerships created in the Studio have even resulted in the development of original techniques, as craftsmen push themselves to their limits to fully realise an artist’s creative vision.”

Adriano Berengo had worked with Joana Vasconcelos before. “Joanna is not a glass artist. Joanna is happy that we give her the possibility to work with glass. My artisans feel proud. They feel that they are confronted with a real artist and her sensitivity. They participate 100% in the creation of the work of art.” The chandelier started with a sketch, based on a chandelier Vasconcelos had previously made in textile, but her glass version referenced the traditional Murano rezzonico chandelier technique. “The centre is a flaming heart, a heart in flames but the arms of the chandelier are done as rezzonico chandeliers were done,” explains Joana Vasconcelos. “I was trying to transform the classical chandelier into a completely different version.” However says Berengo “She understood that I had to adapt it, change it, modify, to make it fit for glass. We put the light inside the sculpture, the heart she made in fabric. It’s beautiful work.”

Vasconcelos is delighted. It was a challenge. “I thought let's see if you can do this. And they did, and so I'm really happy. Working with Berengo is like having a new studio in your hands. His openness has been so good for me and other artists. You learn so much. You’re able to learn a technique and some materials that in art schools you don't get to do. It’s really cool, because we can try out and we can learn, the technicians tell us stuff, and, make us able to use that material in a contemporary way.”