Tears turned to heaven

The Exhibition

Her solo exhibition in Trieste, curated by Miroslav Gašparović and Raffaella Sgubin, has been realised thanks to the collaboration between ERPaC, the Regional Authority for Cultural Heritage, the Croatian Community of Trieste, Polo Museale-Mibact and Muo (Museum of Art and Crafts) in Zagreb, with the contribution of the Casali Foundation.

The title, ‘Glass, My Second Skin’, perfectly expresses the level of identification between the artist and this material of wonders, which has fascinated her since she was a child, when she would playfully look at the world through her mother’s crystal glasses and it seemed as if she was watching a magic show. ‘Gordana Drinkovic’s second skin, that material that she masters with such mastery,’ explains Raffaella Sgubin, ’is significant of what she perceives as her true nature, one that feels the need not to hide even her most intimate emotions and feelings, accepting the limit of her own fragility. As in the case of the glass tears that rise to the sky, the installation Suze okrenute prema nebu / Tears turned to the sky that represents a poetic act of love towards her recently deceased husband’.

Tears Turned to Heaven also gives the title to one of the six thematic sections into which the exhibition has been divided, designed to highlight one of the principled characteristics of glass, its ability to handle light: the others are STAKLO, moje drugo tijelo (Glass, my second skin), Sagrada Familia, Afrika, Stakleni gradovi (Glass City) and ČAŠE i Opa Art – Made in Croatia (Glasses and Opa Art – Made in Croatia ).

‘Even when it comes to the execution of conditioned elements, such as a glass or a candelabra, attention and creativity are directed primarily to form, and only later to function,’ Miroslav Gašparović writes of his works. His aspiration is not to create an ergonomically perfect glass, from which we will not even notice we are drinking: on the contrary, the artist wishes to make every contact with his glass a special experience. Just as we derive pleasure from the enchantment of the drink in the glass, the act of drinking itself should be unforgettable’.

Of all the series of glasses and candlesticks created so far, the most personal, says Gašparović, is perhaps the Holy Grail series, which metaphorically represents the eternal search for artistic truth in the form of the chalice, the glass. Within this cycle Gordana Drinković begins to create glasses – personalised portraits – of herself, loved ones, but also Hollywood stars, with ‘Brad and Angelina’.

But also her vases made under the title ‘Sagrada Familia’ cannot fail to strike the imagination, which in their form offer a reference to, but also a strong interpretation of, Gaudí’s cathedral, or the works part of the ‘Cities of Glass’ project, which under the names of Manhattan, Babylon, Atlantis consist of candelabras of different shapes, sizes, colours and ways of working that relate to each other in a dynamic space.

Exhibition promoted by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb.

Organised by ERPaC Ente Regionale Patrimonio Culturale Friuli Venezia Giulia, MiBACT Polo Museale del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Croatian Community of Trieste, Croatia Museum of Arts and Crafts