The Glass Beat

Works by Giancarlo Signoretto and Agnese Tegon

in collaboration with Fabiana Tezza

In these works, through glass, the journey of the heart and its fragility is represented, moving from health to illness and finally to rebirth. Glass, a material that is both fragile and resilient, can break yet be melted and thus reborn, becoming the ideal metaphor for the path from heart to illness to rebirth and for the possibilities offered by modern medicine.

The heart, like glass, is a symbol of resilience: it can break, be altered, and be reborn to continue beating thanks to the care of the surgeon–glassmaker.

The first work, in red, transparent glass, represents the healthy, vital heart, beating regularly and marking the rhythm of our days. Illness can deform and alter it, creating a new daily reality. The glass therefore becomes knobbly, opaque, more vulnerable, and serves as a metaphor for the suffering and difficulties that patients must face during illness. The thread that connects these two hearts, however, reminds us that even in the diseased heart remains a vital, red, healthy part that longs to live again.

The second work represents the experience of rebirth through transplantation. The glass returns to being smooth, transparent, perfect, and bears the engraved Chinese ideogram 心, meaning “heart,” because within the transplanted heart are engraved the love and the hearts of the donor families.

The mechanical heart is a combination of glass and metal: on one side, red glass like a healthy heart; on the other, bolts and screws symbolizing the technique and technology that can support patients. This work is also intended as a tribute to all the researchers who work every day to find new paths for patient care.

In the final work appears the symbol of innovation: xenotransplantation, a new frontier that requires openness toward something different from us. The courage and tenacity of doctors, together with those of patients, open new perspectives and new hopes of rebirth.