Volume II — Number 113
September 2018
Monthly Newsletter
Newsletter
Yoichi Ohira • New visit to Japan. After our visit to Japan last May and, specifically, of our visit to the Museum of Art in Glass of the city of Toyama, both our Secretary and I made the purpose of returning to move to this country to deepen in the world of artistic glass that is exhibited in its many museums and galleries. And we have been presented with the opportunity to attend the International Glass Exhibition, which, on a triennial basis, has been held at the Glass Art Museum of the city of Toyama. On page 5 of this Bulletin, we report extensively on this event, attended by 765 artists from 45 countries and who have submitted a total of 1,110 works.
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It is surprising that of all the artists who have submitted their works to the competition, a third have been Japanese artists, which indicates the high level that glass art has in this country. It is followed by the United States with 126 artists and the Czech Republic with 54. In the final phase of the contest, the jury has selected 54 works, of which 22 are Japanese, and have been awarded a Grand Prize, endowed with three
M. A. Carretero.
million yen, a gold medal, endowed with one million yen and five of silver, endowed with 200,000 yen each. The images of all the selected works will be printed in the catalog of the exhibition that we hope to acquire in the Museum to have a beautiful memory of our attendance. Taking advantage of this visit, we will approach the Institute of Art in Glass that exists in the aforementioned city of Toyama.
Alitalia and we will make a stopover in Rome, then go to the Narita airport in Tokyo, after a little more than twelve hours of travel. In total, about 15 hours. It can seem heavy to endure so many hours of flight but, as it happened to us in the previous trip, the illusion for what awaits us in Japan makes the journey a trifle.
We have already acquired our JR Pass to be able to move by train through Japan. It is very convenient because this way we avoid having to be taking out the tickets at According to their website, in the ticket office or in the this Institute they offer two vending machines of the programs: one called G.C.S. stations. to study the basic fundamentals of glass and Both the first day of our the art to be made with this arrival in Tokyo and the last element and another to two days of our stay, we will investigate in the advanced be staying at a hotel in the level of art in glass which Ibis chain that is very close they call A.R.S. to Shinjuku station, perfect for traveling to the airport. This visit will also allow us to greet one of his teachers, The rest of the intermediate the Czech artist Vaclav days we will be lodged in the Rezak, whom we had the hotel Manten de Toyama. opportunity to meet at the From Toyama we will travel Lhotsky Gallery, in the to Notojima and from Tokyo Czech city of Zelezni Brod, when we visited in the month to Hakone to visit the museums that I have already of May 2013. mentioned. We will also see the Glass Art Museum of Notojima and Just as our first trip to Japan was intended, fundamentally, two other museums in Hakone: the Venetian Glass to visit the most emblematic places in the country, and the Pola. according to the travel In Japan there is a great agency responsible for its culture in glass art. The assembly, and that we were museums and galleries that staying in very expensive exhibit sculptures made with hotels, in this we will enjoy this material are very the world of artistic glass and numerous and we can get an our hotels are sure that they idea by visiting the web will satisfy our demands. where a good number of We will publish images of our them are reviewed. visits on Facebook. For this trip we have booked a flight with the company