GLASSTRESS – The Modern Art Revolution in Venice, Tsinghua University, Beijing (CN)01 april - 05 mei 2026
- 20 mrt
- 3 minuten om te lezen
Bijgewerkt op: 25 mrt
From 1 April to 5 May 2026 Koen Vanmechelen is both a featured artist in GLASSTRESS – The Modern Art Revolution in Venice at Tsinghua University, as Chief Artistic Director of the project. The exhibition, curated by Ma Sai, Dean Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University and Adriano Berengo, founder Berengo Studio, brings together 56 artists from over 20 countries and presents more than 60 works. Unfolding across four thematic sections, it explores the role of glass within the evolution of modern and contemporary art.
Glass as a contemporary language
Glass has been closely intertwined with the development of human civilization throughout history. Its processes of melting and forming have shaped a material that is both technically complex and conceptually rich. Rooted in the centuries-old glassmaking traditions of Murano, Venice, Berengo Studio has played a key role in bringing glass into dialogue with contemporary art.
Initiated by Adriano Berengo as a collateral event of the Venice Biennale, Glasstress has developed into an international platform where artists collaborate with master glassmakers. Within this context, glass is approached not as decorative craft, but as an experimental and conceptual medium.
From the beginning, Koen has been closely involved in the project, contributing both as an artist and as a (co-)curator. His work reflects an ongoing interest in glass as a way of thinking: a medium through which transformation, fragility and resilience become visible.
Identity as transformation
At Tsinghua University, the exhibition unfolds across four thematic chapters - The Language of Matter, The Estranged Commonplaces, The Narratives of Identity, and The Renaissance of the Past - that position glass as matter, language and cultural carrier.
Through cross-disciplinary collaboration, material experimentation and cultural exchange, the exhibition offers Chinese audiences a new perspective on glass as a medium, while deepening the understanding of modern art.
Within this framework, Koen Vanmechelen is featured in The Narratives of Identity, a section that explores how identity is shaped through interaction, exchange and transformation.
Evolution of a Hybrid
Vanmechelen presents Evolution of a Hybrid, a glass sculpture developed during a workshop at the Academy of Arts & Design in Beijing in 2025, in collaboration with master glassmaestro’s from Berengo Studio. The project offered students insight into the collaborative process between artist and artisan.
Alongside the sculpture, the installation includes drawings made during the workshops. Revealing a process of crossbreeding that is both biological and cultural, showing how interaction between disciplines, materials and people can generate new forms and meanings.
Workshop at the Academy of Arts & Design, Beijing, 2025
Hybridity as a condition
The presentation also includes Cosmopolitan Fossil I (2021), a sculpture in marble and glass that continues Vanmechelen’s long-standing exploration of hybridity as an evolving condition. In this work, glass functions both as material and metaphor: fragile yet resilient, transparent yet layered.
Coinciding with the exhibition, a monumental bronze variation of Cosmopolitan Fossil will also find a contemporary home at the Embassy of Belgium in Beijing, extending the dialogue into a public and diplomatic context.
Together, these works situate Vanmechelen’s practice within the broader dialogue of Glasstress: a continuous negotiation between tradition and experimentation, between material and meaning, and between local craftsmanship and global exchange.
Exhibition Facts
GLASSTRESS – The Modern Art Revolution in Venice
1 April – 5 May 2026
Tsinghua UniversityAcademy of Arts & Design
Beijing, China
Curators: Ma Sai, Dean Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
Adriano Berengo, founder Berengo Studio
In collaboration with Fondazione Berengo