In front of its furnace in Murano, iDOGI has created Albero di Luce (Tree of Light), a work inspired by a children’s story, which first welcomes and greets travellers landing at Venice airport and heading for the historic centre along the waterway. The Venetian company is known worldwide for its spectacular art glass creations. The branches of Albero di Luce are composed of hundreds of blown glass ‘bossole’, an original reinterpretation of traditional elements of the arms of the famous Venetian chandeliers. At night the ‘willow tree’ lights up with iridescent light, creating a magical and enchanting atmosphere.
L’Albero di Luce (Tree of Light) is a large glass willow tree that lights up at dusk with the changing colours of twilight and Murano. The installation is the spatial, plastic and emotional transposition of a children’s story whose protagonist is Marco, a child who was afraid of the dark, especially on stormy evenings when the large willow tree in the garden would bang its branches on his bedroom window.
Marco asked his mother incessantly why that tree scared him instead of helping him. And his mother reassured him by telling him that trees have big hearts, but they too are afraid of the dark. Motivated by his mother’s answer, one night Marco ventured into the garden, determined to solve the problem. So he took a branch of the large willow tree and buried it together with a light bulb, and then holed up within the walls of the house. The next evening, he found, to his surprise, a large luminous willow growing in the centre of the garden.
A spatial, plastic and emotional transposition of this children’s tale, the installation is a skilful reproduction of a large glass willow tree. “The Tree of Light”, comments Domenico Caminiti, president of iDOGI, “pays homage to the magic charm of Venetian artistic glass, its mesmerizing story-telling, and its ability to shine a light on our dreams and desire.”
Visible even from the lagoon, along the canal that connects Marco Polo airport to Venice, the grandiose light installation was created right in front of the Murano glassworks of iDogi, a company renowned for creating ‘bespoke’ chandeliers, sculptures and furnishings in Venetian artistic glass for some of the world’s most exclusive palaces and residences.
