Biennial international artistic glass and design competition

The Museums of the Sforza Castle of  Milan in collaboration with the collector Sandro Pezzoli, who has always promoted initiatives connected to glass, organize since 2018 the International Artistic Glass and Design competition for young people under 35 “MilanoVetro -35”.

The competition proposes a process of development of the innovative work with the glass material both in art and in contemporary design. The choice of Milan and the Sforza Castle has the intention of reiterating the historic continuity and the centrality of the Provincial capital of Milan in creating and exhibiting glasswork.

The Sforza Castle has been home to the  Civic Museums of Milan since 1900. Amongst other things, it has an important collection of artistic glass. The recent deposit of the Bellini Pezzoli collection (2016) allowed some gaps concerning the last part of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first to be bridged, so that today the Collection is one of the broadest, most complete and updated in Italy.

The competition is two-yearly and is open to young people under 35 on the date the notice was published.
The first Edition was in 2018 (catalogue 2018), the second Edition was in 2020 (catalogue 2020), the third Edition in 2022 (catalogue 2022)

The finalists' exhibition is open from 10^th March to 19^th  June 2022 in Sala della Balla, Castello Sforzesco. On display the thirty-one works that have been selected by the Scientific Committee (Rosa Chiesa, design and contemporary glass researcher, IUAV, Venice; Maria Luisa Martinez, director of Museum of Contemporary Glass Art in Alcorcón-MAVA, Madrid; Fiorella Mattio, curator of modern and contemporary applied art collections, Castello Sforzesco, Milan; Sandro Pezzoli, glass collector and expert; Lucia Pini, director of Galleria d'arte moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza; Francesca Tasso, head curator of art collections, Castello Sforzesco). 

​Discover the finalists here

The award ceremony took place in Sala della Balla on Wednesday, March 9 at 18.30. The international jury (Alberto Alessi, design manager; Mario Colica, graphic designer and glass collector; Alessandro Oldani, curator of the Municipality of Milan - Public Art Office; Laura Panno, glass artist; Sylva Petrová, curator of the glass collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, Czech Republic) awarded the following prizes:

Ayano Yoshizumi (Japan, 1991): purchasing prize “Aldo Bellini”. The winning work become part of the civic collection, in Castello Sforzesco Museums

Jonas Niedermann (Switzerland, 1990): prize for innovation “Enrico Bersellini”: a residency in Murano

Zuzana Kubelková (Czech Republic, 1987): material prize "Sala delle Asse", consisting of a supply of glass

Special mention to Tomás Prokop (Czech Republic, 1992).

Discover the winning works here

Timing

June 15, 2021 Publication of the competition notice
November 28, 2021 end date of the competition notice
December 17, 2021 Announcement of the finalists invited to the exhibition
March 9, 2022, at 18.30,  Opening and Awards ceremony Competition
From March to June 2022 , in Sala della Balla (Sforza Castle), exhibition of contest finalists 

For information: [email protected]