GASNews October/ November 2011 Volume 22 ... - Glass Art Society

International
Window
4th International Glass
Festival Luxembourg,
August 26-28, 2011
By Scott Benefield
Artists from around the world working
with glass seem especially fond of coming
together. Every gathering like this – be it
a conference, festival or symposium – has
its own unique character. That character
is formed by the nature of the host
organization, the setting (both physical
and cultural), the intended audience and a
number of other factors including, perhaps,
the seasonal weather.
For example, a GAS conference gains
its character through its setting (which
changes every year) but also through its
scale, with multiple simultaneous events
and its attendance numbered in the
many hundreds; which is different from
a Bullseye BECon, with its deep roots in
the city of Portland and the patronage of
a major manufacturer; which is different
again from the Crystalex symposia of the
’70s and ’80s, which were by invitationonly
and centered around participatory
collaboration with the factory resources.
The 4th International Glass Festival
Luxembourg has the feel of a weekend
in the country with friends – a big house
party where old acquaintances are
renewed, meals are communal, wine
appears out of nowhere and the hours
are a bit irregular. This festival – first held
in 2006 and repeated three times since
then – is a labor of love by two artists,
Robert Emeringer and Zaiga Baiza, with
the volunteer assistance of numerous
friends, colleagues and neighbors. Most of
the activities are held in their backyard –
literally – in the small village of Asselborn,
in the northern tip of Luxembourg, where
they maintain a studio for the restoration
of ecclesiastical stained glass and their
other works in glass.
20
At the heart of this festival is the
familiar impulse to come together, to be
drawn from your local community to meet
your peers, exchange opinions and information,
to expose your work and be exposed
to the work of others, and to reconnect with
friends in the field. As word of the festival
has spread throughout Europe through
the years, it has grown beyond their initial
circle of friends and professional acquaintances
to encompass a much wider network
of artists and students.
Attendance for this year’s festival
numbered around 75, drawn from over
25 different European countries. At this
one small gathering you could meet – you
could not help but meet – glass artists
from Belgium, France, Switzerland, Norway,
Estonia, Latvia, Russia, England, Germany,
Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Israel,
Turkey, Lithuania and so on. Part of the
reason for the wide variety of participating
countries comes from Luxembourg’s geographical
location in the middle of Europe
and its easy accessibility by car or train.
But it can also be accounted for by both
Emeringer and Baiza’s extensive network of
friends, especially as it extends into some
of the smaller Eastern European countries.
Emeringer and Baiza have managed
to get some funding from government
agencies and local businesses, but
Dutch artist
Ed van Dijk
(in foreground)
monitors his
wood-fired
furnace as it
comes up to
temperature
(Scott Benefield
photo)
they manage to produce the event each
year with no formal organization, paid
staff or permanent facilities. There’s
a limit to how far you can stretch this
shoestring – and this year’s festival may
have been approaching it – before a
different organizational structure becomes
necessary, but in the meantime their
continued efforts on behalf of this event
are nothing less than astonishing.
This year the festival expanded its
scope to include formal exhibitions at
venues in Luxembourg City and Diekirch.
The Luxembourg City exhibition was
curated by Matt Durran (see the Member
Profile in this issue). Baiza produced a
handsome hardbound catalogue that also
serves as a record of the entire festival.
Participation in the festival was
determined by an open call for entries to
artists. Accepted artists were invited to
send work to the exhibition and to attend
the festival free of charge, where a nightly
evening buffet meal (cooked by neighbors)
and seemingly endless amounts of
excellent local wines were generously
provided. Accommodations could be
booked at local inns and hotels, but many
attending artists elected to pitch their tents
on lawns and surrounding green spaces.
One of the virtues of this Luxembourg
festival is its near absence of formal