By Rosa Barovier Mentasti
The works generated by the hands of Pino Signoretto and Mauro Bonaventura are the result of a collaboration based on an exceptional understanding between the two artists.One could even define them as a pas de deux, were it not that each of them works on different phases and in different ways.
A master with exceptional skills, one of the leading figures in the world of glass, and a young artist specialized in lampwork have conceived and created a particularly unique collection: each piece is made while the glass is hot, thanks to the integration of two different techniques, furnace work and lamp work.
The result is remarkably suggestive and could not have been achieved except by combining these two different skills. Pino Signoretto over the decades has developed a universally recognized mastery in sculpting glass while hot.
His ability and his creativity are evident even beyond the finished work. If one has the good fortune to witness one of his "performances" - because we are speaking of true showmanship - one may fully understand his absolute mastery over the material, which is such that one imagines there are no limits to his creation.
Mauro Bonaventura, like Signoretto, seems to want to force the limits of his technique, which was traditionally relegated to the creation of minor works, both in terms of size and expressive ambitions, though it did at times produce extraordinarily refined works of glass in miniature.
The combination of two techniques, applied at the highest level of artistry, do not necessarily guarantee the success of a creative process. A fundamental condition remains the perfect harmony of intent that has led here to the creation of glass sculptures in which the sculptural form perfected by Signoretto remains imprisoned inside a shining and transparent, yet constraining, vitreous net, made by Bonaventura.
The result is a series of works that are sometimes visionary, sometimes vivaciously naturalistic.
Beside the octopus imprisonedin a fishnet, is a face captivated by the inner ghosts that prevent it from perceiving reality.
