The luxury of transparency

Venini, symbol of creativity and excellence in the Italian glass-making sector, is a cosmopolitan firm, one that is consistent with traditions and innovation.
Contrasting features are skilfully blended to continue manufacturing the colourful dreams that make Venini an internationally-renowned trademark.

Fire, sand, hands – are these shapes and images of the Venini quality?
RIZ: Creating excellent items from ingredients that are basically simple in kind but appropriately matched together with great creativity, taste and passion is probably Venini’s winning recipe but, mostly, that’s what is common to the best “Made in Italy” productions: it is what the rest of the world appreciates and envies about us.

GAS: The quality of our products is the result of a multi-secular manufacturing tradition, where natural raw materials are skilfully shaped by expert hands. Here lies the secret and the fascination of the Venini furnace in Murano which, since 1921, has always amazed those who have been fortunate enough to visit it and to grasp its spirit.

What is the notion of uniqueness in the Venini production?
RIZ: The best way to understand this notion is through the example of a customer who demands our shop to deliver precisely the article that he has held in his hands, even when it is a limited production or series.

GAS: Even though our catalogues depict the same products that are on sale, every single artefact is similar to the other but never identical; especially if you look carefully at the shapes, you will find differences in terms of hues and surface finishing. This is the real essence of craftsmanship.

There are few types of items, but endless interpretations by major artists. How do you recognise a Venini item?
GAS: Every collection is bound together by its ability to generate a final synthesis, even though it is the result of designs and interpretations belonging to different artists. Finding the best match between Innovation and Continuity is probably the most thrilling part of my daily work.

How does passion remain alive over the years and in the people who have worked for Venini?
RIZ: It is a funny disease, highly contagious, difficult to explain or understand, affecting not only refined collectors or the most experienced glassworkers at the furnace. Personally, I believe that the secret lies in the ability to understand what lies behind the product which, apparently, looks like nothing more than an object made of blown glass.

GAS: By actively involving everyone in our projects, from the famous designer to the young shop assistant in the showroom: through their enthusiasm, everyone can and must give his/her own different but indispensable contribution to the product.

Is there a limit beyond which quality is wasted?
GAS: Quality is wasted when it is mere decoration.

Is luxury that which crosses the limit?
RIZ: Let me start by saying that the word Luxury – perhaps excessively debated in the recent griffe-permeated years – badly fits into the Venini environment which perhaps has more to do with the world of what are known as high range products, a definition which I believe is more appropriate to our production. In any case, I do not believe that the notion of Luxury entails crossing a limit, be it an aesthetic, price range or imagerelated limit. However, it is worth pointing out Coco Chanel’s statement: “… luxury is not the opposite of misery but rather the opposite of vulgarity…”.

GAS: I, too, believe that in the case of Venini, luxury has to do with a cultural notion and that it is never meant as mere ostentation of wealth.

RIZ: Given the complex sociological implications that characterise the consumption of luxury items, it is important to distinguish between the consumption fetishism that affects fashion victims and the motivations that drive those who are fond of or collect our products; the latter, I believe, seek some sort of spiritual fulfilment every time they buy or enjoy an item such as a Venini artefact.

GAS: Venini’s customers have always paid great attention to – and at times in a critical way – every stylistic change taking place in our company, as well as to the projects the company develops, especially in the case of limited collections and unique works of art created in collaboration with international artists.

Venini products are very expensive items. What does the price of an item represent?
RIZ: The price of our items is the sum of many factors ranging from costly production factors to quality selection criteria, from stylistic research to traditional craftsmanship, from acknowledged artistic prestige to aesthetic elegance. Let me remind you that our “CAD/CAM systems” are actually traditional medieval tools handled by skilled glassworkers who have been handing down this trade from one generation to the next…
Unfortunately, few persons bear this in mind, but it is our duty to try to point out these differences as much as possible compared to the other quite respectable glass artefacts that are available on the market.