Vetralia / Venice Design Biennial
Design a glass mirror reinterpreting Venetian artisan techniques for collectible design, to be produced and shown at Milan Design Week 2027.
Vetralia, supported by the Venice Design Biennial, is inviting artists and designers from around the world to design a mirror where glass is the absolute creative protagonist — not merely decorative, but central to the work's expressive identity.
The inspiring theme is *Reverberation* — not a static reflection, but a dynamic phenomenon. Light fragmenting and expanding, the doubling and dissolving of a city on water, the transformation of memory, the uncertainty where light bends within glass itself. The theme is intentionally open: you may treat the mirror as a pure aesthetic object, a metaphor, or both.
What Vetralia is looking for
Your design should make glass an expressive and substantial part of the piece, drawing — explicitly or through reinterpretation — on Venetian artisan techniques. Glass may be frame, structure, surface, detail, or sole protagonist. There are no stylistic or conceptual constraints, but preference is given to projects that innovatively interpret flat glass techniques (engraving, decoration, fusing) over hot-blown furnace glass as the dominant element.
Working with Vetralia
Vetralia's Venice atelier combines Venetian craftsmanship expertise — engraving, grinding, decoration, chromatic and material processing — with a contemporary design vision. Interested designers are welcome to visit the atelier before or during proposal development to explore techniques, finishes, and production possibilities firsthand.
The winning project will be produced between January and April 2027 in one of two ways: either fully produced by Vetralia based on your approved design, or partially produced by the artist with Vetralia supplying specific glass components. The right approach will be decided collaboratively based on the project's needs.
The selected work will be presented at Milan Design Week, 12–18 April 2027. The winning designer will assign commercial rights to Vetralia in exchange for royalties on sales.
How to apply
Send a single email to info@vetraliacollectible.com by 7 January 2027, with the subject line: *Application - Vetralia&VDB - Last Name First Name*
Include
Results will be notified by 15 January 2027. Rights to non-selected proposals remain with their authors.
