Exploring with rare sensitivity the fragile and intangible threshold that separates the immaterial from the tangible, Tanja Pak uses glass as an existential catalyst. For the artist, glass transcends the role of a mere formal medium; rather, it emerges as the sole medium capable of capturing, retaining and crystallising the very essence of existence, finally making visible that perpetual cycle of breath which defines, sustains and ensures our presence in the world.

Through a skilful use of the material, a deliberate manipulation of transparency and volume, and a deep technical mastery, the artist carries out a veritable alchemical process: she transforms the feelings and sensations conveyed by landscapes into a faithful and profound reflection of her own inner awareness. The works on display thus present themselves to the visitor as tangible fragments of a suspended and expanded time, immaterial testimonies to a journey of exploration whose deepest roots lie in experiences of breathing as a way to reconnect with nature, to exist, and in particular in certain recent and significant experiences gained during residencies in Iceland and particularly in the Svalbard archipelago, amongst the Arctic ice.

The exhibition itinerary guides the public through this inner landscape via sculptures and installations that invite visitors to slow down from the frenetic pace of everyday life, to discover and connect intimately with the artwork, but at the same time to reflect on the fragility of the planet, on how to preserve its beauty and its balance as a reservoir of life.

//

The Premio Fondazione di Venezia per The Venice Glass Week, now in its sixth edition, was awarded to the exhbition Shape of Silence. Tanja Pak, curated by Francesca Giubilei at SPARC* – Spazio Arte Contemporanea. The jury recognised the project “for its ability to explore, with poetic sensitivity and technical rigour, the limits of glass, understood both as the physical boundaries of the material and as the extreme possibilities of the expressive medium. Through an evocative dialogue between material, landscape and processes of transformation, the exhibition expresses humanity’s eternal longing to reconnect with nature, a desire that feels more relevant than ever today, evoking the ice of the polar regions through the heat of the furnace.”