O Ano Internacional do Vidro em 2022
Each day the glass industry presents machinery and specialists studying glassmaking ever since the Phoenicians until the present times, it effects and potential in the fine art and design, enchanting, aesthetically seducing and poeticizing the presented piece. In addition, in diverse sectors, glass use is expanding in architecture, construction, recycling and sustainability. In this way, technology presents itself as an ally of glass, uniting various professions, so that this noble material reaches talented hands universally.
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Glass as an everyday and recyclable substance, once again depends on technology and an industrial process to melt its substratum. When fragments are joined in the phase of glass fusion the extraction of raw materials from nature is diminished. The value of the recycled material has a direct connection with its purity. Furthermore, glass recycled by Cooperatives of Waste Pickers and Recyclers generates thousands of jobs for the underprivileged which maintain themselves and their families with this work, bringing benefits to society through this noble material which is 100% recyclable.
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The sustainability of glass permits a better utilization of sunlight. Throughout the world many companies and industries strive to reduce electric energy consumption. We must not forget that all energy production whether hydroelectric, thermoelectric or even nuclear causes some type of environmental impact on the planet on multiple scales.
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In this way, we will use artistic expression in glass in the 1st International Biennial in Portugal, celebrating 2022 as the International Year of Glass, chosen by the U.N. and as an instrument for the intermediation between knowhow, knowledge and significant transformations in society, uniting and raising awareness in a populace, being capable of attracting and transforming them into opinion makers through the worthy and challenging utility of glass, that has dignified the importance of its creative process. This is the function of art; unifier in the integration of other capabilities, promoting reflection, the necessary fruition and transitions, in various senses of the human experience.
Heloiza Azevedo
Director of the Biennial and of Heclectik-Art