NOT VITAL at the island of San Giorgio Maggiore (Venice)

On 1 June 2013, the exhibition Not Vital: 700 Snowballs, curated by Alma Zevi, opens to the public at ‘Benedicti Claustra Onlus’ at the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

The show, open until 29 September, is an installation consisting of 700 individually blown glass balls which bear striking resemblance to snowballs suspended in air. The snowballs rest directly on the floor, evenly and randomly spread. As each snowball is hand-blown by Vetreria Pino Signoretto in Murano, no two are identical—just as natural elements are never exactly repeated. The installation creates a place of meditation, evoking the metamorphic, transformative and cyclical processes of nature.

700 Snowballs becomes an environment, a tranquil place of awe and contemplation. Inspired throughout his career by a childhood spent in the Swiss Alps, Vital has explored the contradictions of the harsh climate and vast landscapes that he knows so intimately. Indeed, the iconography of snow and its context has recurred throughout Vital’s oeuvre—he has for instance used plaster to mould mountains that appear to be covered in snow, and has fabricated sleds from marble.