“That the design be splendid, even more than the glass itself,” said Gabriele D’Annunzio about the work of Napoleone Martinuzzi. This quote can still sum up all of the production of Venini. Tracing back through the company’s history, from the contribution of Vittorio Zecchin, the first artistic director chosen by Paolo Venini when the company Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C had just been formed (1921), by way of masters like the above-mentioned Martinuzzi, we reach the renowned creations of Carlo Scarpa, who starting in 1932 took part – until the 1960s – in the long artistic and productive career of the glassworks, as an art director and a designer.
The list of artists, designers and architects, Italian and international, who worked with Venini and have constructed, piece by piece, its peerless cultural legacy across a century of operation, would be very long indeed. Since 2016, the company is part of Gruppo Damiani.
As the new artistic director, Marco Piva enters this extraordinary heritage. The ‘possible’ mission is precisely that of “revising the creative path of the production, starting with analysis of the historical-cultural legacy contained in the brand’s archives,” he explains. “The firm has collaborated with artists and designers like Carlo Scarpa and Gio Ponti, the makers of the history of design of the last century. For me, it is a privilege to make a contribution to this ongoing success.”
Beyond the individual products and the aesthetic and functional expectations of their users, the architect’s work will concentrate on involving Venini in the luxury contract sector, with a focus on hospitality and residential applications, relying on his own extensive professional experience, but also on the history of the company itself.
Starting in the 1930s, in fact, Venini has been involved in many ‘contract’ projects of great importance, before that term was used in Italy: the Palazzo della Borsa in Milan, the Torre della Rivoluzione in Brescia, Banca Popolare di Milano, the Palazzo del Ministero della Corporazione and the Motonave Conte di Savoia, or – just to mention a few others – the Grand Hotel de Milan, the Hotel Continental in Rome, the Olivetti Corporation of America, the Schloss Theater in Fulda, Germany, the Hotel Excelsior del Lido in Venice, the Mandarin Hotel of Singapore, the Swiss Credit Bank and Wall Street Branch in New York, and the facilities of Banca d’Italia in Rome, Milan and Naples.
Silvia Damiani, president of Venini, remarks: “I am truly enthusiastic about this new relationship. Marco Piva not only has vast creative experience, but has also taken part in outstanding projects on an international level. He is an important figure on the Italian and international cultural scene. Marco Piva will be able to project Venini into an even more cosmopolitan dimension.”
