Perle di Luce: from a forgotten factory to the exhibition at Bottega Cini
How Perle di Luce began, the photographic project on Venetian glass beads, UNESCO heritage, and how it reached its first exhibition at Bottega Cini in 2026.
It all began in 2018, with an invitation. A friend asked me to photograph her family’s seed bead factory in Murano: a workshop closed for decades and left untouched, like a time capsule. Crates of coloured beads, sample books, tools, dust. That is where Perle di Luce was born.
Knowledge passed through the hands
For centuries Venetian glass beads travelled the trade routes, from Africa to Asia and the Americas. Industrial seed bead production has disappeared, but the tradition lives on in lampworked beads, made one by one by a few artisans. In 2020 the art of glass beads was inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Over the years I have returned often to Murano and Venice to build a relationship with these people and portray them in their workshops: the gesture, the fire, the tools, and also the places that hold the island’s industrial memory. The project is developed in collaboration with the CPVV Committee for the safeguarding of the art, Costantini Glassbeads and Fondazione The Place of Wonders.
The first exhibition
From 10 to 20 September 2026, during the 10th Venice Glass Week, Perle di Luce was shown to the public for the first time at Bottega Cini: photographs and glass beads, with talks, workshops and live demonstrations created with the community of artisans and local partners. For two weeks I was artist in residence at the Bottega, together with the English artist Holly Parr.
What remains
Intangible heritage only exists if it keeps being practised and handed down. That is why the latest part of the project follows the young artisans of The Place of Wonders Foundation’s Mano a Mano programme, trained by masters Alessia Fuga and Marisa Convento. Photographing them means documenting not only what remains, but how knowledge is passed on to the future.
Project milestones
| Year | What |
|---|---|
| 2018 | The invitation to photograph a family glass bead factory on Murano: the first body of images |
| 2020 | The art of glass beads is inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list |
| 2023 | Perle di Mare, a video art short film, premieres at the Glocal Film Festival |
| 2025 | In the Murano workshops with a Sigma 10-18mm wide-angle, to place people inside their surroundings |
| 2026 | The portraits of the young artisans of Mano a Mano and the first exhibition at Bottega Cini, during The Venice Glass Week |
All the photographs and films are on the Perle di Luce project page.