Elisabeth de Brabant Contemporary
Marly Stefens creates glassworks as unique compositions crafted from recuperated Murano glass. Her creative process, which involves deconstructing and reimagining glass entities, unfolds within the walls of a historic glass-making atelier.
Over the years, Marly has forged close ties with Venetian glass artisans, granting her access to a hidden world of vintage materials. These materials, shaped by ancient techniques and a profound understanding of the chemistry of glass, are now given a new life in her creations. Their original purposes—whether as chandeliers, pendants, bowls, urns, plates, lamps, mirrors, or vases—become secondary to their intrinsic beauty, which Marly celebrates in innovative forms.
In 2021, Marly participated in The Venice Glass Week, presenting her one-of-a-kind pieces in a private exhibition in Venice.
In 2024, Elisabeth de Brabant Contemporary, a private contemporary art space in partnership with the non-profit humanitarian organization Women without Borders, invited Marly to develop a collection of glassworks for the private bar of the Galleria dei Gondolieri in Venice.
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The artist Léa Dumayet invited olfactory designer Daphné Perryman-Holt to collaborate on creating an immersive installation within the exhibition CILIA. The olfactory layer developed in situ reveals elements fundamental to the making of glass: air, water, earth and flame.
‘Together with Léa, we imagined a sensory journey in dialogue with the space, where the humidity, dampness so present in Venice can almost be perceived as a living presence. Very quickly, the idea of translating glass, a fragile yet inert material, led us to explore its transformation.
Inspired by the work of Murano artisans, we chose to evoke the four elements involved in the glass creation proccess.
Air is expressed through an ozonic note, light and transparent, evoking an aerial breath. Water, denser and more fluid, is embodied by an aquatic sensation with slightly iodized accents, recalling the lagoons and submerged woods of Venice. Earth reveals itself through humid, organic notes, inspired by the undergrowth after rain, bringing an almost tactile depth. Finally, fire evokes heat and the transformation of matter.
Throughout the journey, you are invited to smell each work as a sensory experience—an immersion into the elements that give birth to glass.’
