As if entering into a mysterious dream, we step into an old alchemist’s laboratory, full of strange objects and traditional paraphernalia.
In the space packed with ampoules, ancient books, herbariums and old instruments, emerges artist Tristano di Robilant’s stunning and colorful installation titled The Three Alchemists. Specifically produced for this exhibition in Anfora furnace in Murano, it includes three hand blown glass sculptures, and can be considered as a metaphor of the researcher’s mind, which is both scientific and finely philosophical.
One piece, titled The Itinerant Alchemist, refers to the peripatetic existence of the alchemist, perpetually seeking the elusive formula for the transmutation of base metals into precious silver or gold - but also, in a wider sense, the search for a transmutation of the Self into a higher state of consciousness.
The two sculptures titled The Alchemists from the Orient refer to the Chinese tradition of alchemy and its quest for immortality. Loosely based on the figures of Xu Congshi and Chunyu Shutong (traditionally linked together with their master Wei Boyang) who, according to some sources, were the co-authors of the first book of Chinese alchemy: Cantong Qi or sometimes translated as Kingship of the Three. They are pictured here ideally as silver clouds atop a ruby and an emerald mountain.
A series of five Poetic Stills, glass alembics distilling poetry, hidden between some ancient alembics, are created by the curator, under her alias name Pico, with maestro Salvadori in Anfora furnace in Murano.
Together with some little glass and wood works named Iconic Pistils, these pieces are an homage to her father, Eliseo Burati (1924-1986), a prominent figure of researcher, pharmacist, herbalist, alchemist, and a pioneer of the rediscovery of natural therapies in Italy since the Fifties.