MARTINA
SIKOROVÁ
Martina Sikorová, curator and founder of Glaz Bridge, combines her economic education with expertise in art, design and glass craft, and glass has been a source of lifelong fascination for her.
She brings a wealth of experience from over 15 years of curating in multifunctional Prague gallery spaces and collaborating with artists to her project. She has been involved in organizing dozens of exhibitions, book launches, seminars and community activities that have received international attention.
In the past, she has developed the international business and local distribution network of a holistic beauty brand through shared marketing and collaboration. This project has been followed globally and has been applied in other countries due to its success. As one of the first members of the Association of Socially Beneficial Companies, she has dedicated herself to the topic of sustainability projects.
In addition to her professional activities, Martina has also been involved in charity work, for example through Girls and Business, which supported homeless women at the Mother and Child Institute and community gardens. Now, through her work with the Foundation, she is dedicated to supporting artists and arts projects.
Working at the Hospice of the Good Shepherd has given Martina insight into the processes involved in preparing for death, passing and saying goodbye, which has inspired her to combine funeral themes with art, predominantly glass.
One of the inspirations for the Glaz Bridge project was the documentary Czech Glas, Quo Vadis? (Milan 2021), which led her to the idea of combining funerary themes with glass, or rather the very demanding technique of melting glass into a mould. Since 2019, she has been actively engaged in the materialization of her vision and founded the company Glaz Bridge with the aim of reaching new audiences and introducing them to the world of glass and connecting artists from different disciplines. Through her project work, she explores the theme of ritual and expresses respect for the deceased through functional funerary objects.
Outside of her work context, she enjoys travelling and exploring local cultural traditions and loves documentary films.
GLASS SOUL
PIETAS I.
Physical departure from our earthly life is a topic of marginal interest in our society. Despite the fact that throughout history this fateful event is the subject of all religions and societies. Related to this are the ideas of the afterlife presented by metaphysics, mysticism or esotericism; where the soul goes after death and in which worlds it remains. In all cultures, burial rituals are represented in many forms and culminate in the burial of the remains of the deceased; pyramids, ancient sarcophagi, catacombs, simple graves, ritual offerings to the gods or returning to nature. The whole world knows small and large personal altars and places of remembrance right at home or on the road. There are countless commemorative plaques, stelae, simply most of us need some kind of physical bond with the memory of the deceased.
In contemporary cemeteries, the deceased is usually commemorated with a simple cross, but also with sculptural tombstones, which are part of the so-called funerary art. Since the end of the 19th century, after overcoming church objections, the deceased have ceased to be buried only in the ground and the vast majority are cremated; the remains are then stored in unified urns, which are usually placed in columbariums. This goes hand in hand with the decline of funeral art, which after the Second World War almost unifies the approaches and views of other cultures and territories. They can fascinate us, inspire us and revive our personal and societal view of the preparation, the departure itself and the piet. In our book, we want to show precisely the possibilities of refining these topics. We want to encourage people to deal with this inseparable part of life while they are still in full strength, thus relieving the bereaved and allowing loved ones to grieve cleanly in a difficult moment.
The GlazBridge group decided to create a wider discussion on the issue of funeral art. That is why in 2022 I prepared a project called GLASS SOUL / PIETAS I., the purpose of which was to pay respect to the deceased through artistic means, which used to be quite common in the past.
The determining form is the urn - a storage place for the cremated remains of the deceased, letters, jewelry or other personal messages, or also an object without a clear content for the materialization of personal memories and emotions. Glass material and the unique traditional craft technology of melting glass into a mold were chosen as the starting point for the realization, which offers much wider options than classic urns of the usual shape.
To implement the project, I approached 21 leading Czech artists from various fields. They differ in age and professional experience, working in the field of glassmaking, sculpture, painting, architecture, jewelry or photography. Each artist could thus offer an opportunity to pay respect to the deceased from their position. The authors of the project brought a completely new perspective and approach to creation, bending the glass craft in their own way and thus creating completely unique sculptures.
In 2023, the realization of the first part of the unique project of the Glaz Bridge group under the name GLASS SOUL/PIETAS I. was completed. The first collection was exhibited in the Museum of Applied Arts in Prague. The present publication now presents the entire exhibited collection of urns and points to important traditions and artistic crafts, brings closer the funeral culture of the country and from different corners of the world. At the same time, it is a unique contribution to the topic of the Czech glassmaking tradition.
Martina Sikorová
Founder of Glaz Bridge and curator of the exhibition