Image: Brynjar Sigurðarson et Veronika Sedlmair (Studio Brynjar & Veronika), Scaled prototypes for windows, 2022, fritte de verre fusionné. Production / réalisation Cirva, avec le soutien du Cerfav, collection Cirva, Marseille (détail). Photo: David Giancatarina © Studio Brynjar & Veronika
The Musée Ariana in Geneva is presenting ‘Le verre, au-delà de la matière. Les collections du Cirva’, an exhibition devoted to contemporary approaches to glass through works from the Centre international de recherche sur le verre et les arts plastiques in Marseille. The exhibition will remain on view at the Swiss Museum of Ceramics and Glass through January 3, 2027.
The presentation brings together more than 200 objects from the CIRVA collection. According to the Musée Ariana, the exhibition examines a millennia-old material from a contemporary perspective, using the collection to demonstrate the research centre’s transdisciplinary approach. CIRVA’s creative project was initiated in 1983.
The Centre international de recherche sur le verre et les arts plastiques is identified in the exhibition material as being based in Marseille. The show at the Musée Ariana focuses on the objects produced within, or gathered through, this research-oriented project rather than presenting glass solely as a category of decorative art. The available information does not specify the individual artists or the complete list of works included.
The exhibition is presented within an institution whose collections and programme centre on ceramics and glass. The Musée Ariana’s building was constructed at the end of the 19th century by Geneva patron Gustave Revilliod. A heritage-tour programme describes the building as combining a monumental cupola, marble and painted decoration in a dialogue between Renaissance and Baroque styles, making the museum itself part of the setting in which its glass collections are viewed.
The exhibition is included in the museum’s September 2026 programme alongside ‘Tender Buttons’, which explores buttons through design, fashion, art, literature, politics and social history, and ‘Marie Ducaté. Simultanés’, an installation combining tracing paper, textiles, drawing, furniture, glass objects and ceramics. These are separate exhibitions and are not part of the CIRVA presentation.
Two public appointments connected with ‘Le verre, au-delà de la matière. Les collections du Cirva’ are listed for September: a guided visit on Sunday, September 6, at 11 a.m., and a thematic visit titled ‘Histoire de rencontres’ on Sunday, September 13, at 11 a.m. The Musée Ariana is located at Avenue de la Paix 10 in Geneva and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The CIRVA exhibition continues through January 3, 2027.
