Simone Crestani pays homage to Murano in solo show

Italian glassmaker, Simone Crestani will be holding a solo exhibition of his ‘Façon de Venise’ collection at the Scene Ouverte gallery in Paris in March. This show is his tribute to the historical techniques of glass on the island of Murano.

In a universe inspired by the majestic power of nature, Crestani’s work combines tradition and modernity. The forms of the past find new life in a contemporary craft. His research into historic Venetian techniques has led him to celebrate history with works exuding a timeless elegance.

Crestani pushes the technical and artistic boundaries of his discipline, without ever forgetting that art and history are intimately linked. Glass is the very subject of his works. In his creations, the utilitarian aspect fades and gives way to sculptural forms.

At the age of 15, Crestani began an apprenticeship in a glass workshop and discovered a deep bond with glass. He worked as an artisan for a long time to perfect his skills. Today, he creates artistic works in his eco-sustainable studio that respects the environment.

See the exhibition from 10 March to 30 April 2022 at Galerie Scene Ouverte, 72 rue Mazarine, 75006 Paris, France. Website: http://galerie-sceneouverte.com/en/

Simone Crestani glas vessel
One of the objects in the exhibition will be Crestani’s covered goblet, ‘Metamorfosi’. This unique piece uses colourless, mould-blown glass and features a baluster stem and a handle with a beetle, as shown in this detail shot. Photo: Alberto Parise.

Read more about Simone Crestani in this CGS feature article.

Main image: A collection of Crestani’s vessels featuring stems with knops and applied sculpted octopuses. Shown: a flute made of transparent, black glass; two transparent, black glass goblets, and a ‘Veronese’-style vase of transparent black glass.Photo:

Plymouth College of Art to host international glass blowing symposium

Leading glass artists from around the world will be showcasing their glass blowing skills at the ‘Melting Pot: Hot Glass Gathering’ event, on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 March 2022.

The event, organised and hosted by Plymouth College of Art in the UK, will be an opportunity for beginners and professionals in glass, plus members of the public, to experience the drama and beauty of hot glass, blown in real time by internationally renowned glass artists.

‘Melting Pot’ brings together live-streamed hot-glass demonstrations and lectures, in person and remotely, with some of the most exciting artists working in glass today. Featured artists and studios include: Elliot Walker, winner of the second series of Netflix’s glass blowing competition, ‘Blown Away’; Wave Glass in Murano, Italy, and the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The show is part of the UK’s national celebrations for the United Nations-designated International Year of Glass in 2022.

Gayle Matthias, an artist and Plymouth College of Art’s Subject Leader for BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices, is the organiser and curator. She commented, “Plymouth College of Art is one of the few remaining Higher Education institutions in the UK where glassblowing techniques can be studied, which makes it vital that we join the international celebrations planned for the UN International Year of Glass.

“Melting Pot will join a global programme of activities that include congresses, industrial fairs, artistic exhibitions and books designed to highlight and celebrate glass technologies’ significant contribution to advancements in the arts and sciences. This is a very exciting opportunity to open our doors and show off some of the drama and beauty of this mesmerising art form.”

Plymouth College of Art’s hot glass workshops and Plymouth Art Cinema (located at Plymouth College of Art, Tavistock Place, Plymouth, PL4 8AT), will be the hub for activities including hot-glass demonstrations by Elliott Walker, Bethany Wood and Andrew Collins, plus live-streamed demonstrations from Italy and The Netherlands.

Melting Pot will also feature regional collaborations in England with the Contemporary Glass Society, Rhizome (an artists’ collective which includes Plymouth College of Art alumni), Cornwall Ceramics and Glass Group, and Teign Valley Glass in Devon.

Teign Valley Glass (located in the Old Pottery, Pottery Rd, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9DS), will open its studio doors to different glassblowers, who will demonstrate their skills in situ and via a live streaming link to Plymouth College of Art.

Some activities are open to walk in on the day, while others, such as the Elliot Walker and Bethany Wood demonstrations, must be booked on Eventbrite in advance. All tickets are free of charge. See the full event schedule on the Plymouth College of Art website here: https://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/melting-pot

Plymouth College of Art has a wide range of design studios and workshops that include specialist facilities for glass, ceramics, metal and wood, alongside rapid digital prototyping facilities in Fab Lab Plymouth. It offers courses that give students the opportunity to reinvent craft for the 21st century, including BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices, MA Craft & Material Practices and MA Glass.

Take part in Holiday Heaven exhibition at the International Festival of Glass 2022

The Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) has an exciting opportunity to show your postcard-sized glass art at the International Festival of Glass this summer.

In 2022 the Commonwealth Games are coming to Birmingham, UK. In recognition of this event, the CGS invites glass artists to celebrate the amazing countries and people of the Commonwealth through an exhibition of 100 small and unique glass works. All submissions will feature in an open show at this prestigious Festival, taking place in August 2022 at Stourbridge, UK.

Over the last couple of years, many of us have not been able to venture abroad, so the CGS chair Susan Purser-Hope, says, “Let your imagination take you around the world instead. In this year of the Commonwealth Games, let’s celebrate the diversity and richness of the many countries and territories that make up the Commonwealth in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania.

“Take a magical mystery tour and send us a glass postcard inspired by a richness of countries, from Australia to Zambia, Bangladesh to Malta, Brunei Darussalam to Vanuatu.

“Commonwealth countries are diverse – they are among the world’s biggest, smallest, richest and poorest countries. Celebrate their sites, fauna and flora, sea world, agriculture, industry and uniqueness in a small piece of glass holiday memorabilia.”

To make it fun and challenging, all pieces of work will be offered for sale for £50, £75 or £100. There will also be prizes.

‘Holiday Heaven’ is a free-to-enter, unselected show, open to all CGS members. If you would like to take part but are not yet a member, why not join here?

The deadline to register is 31 March 2022 and the exhibition dates are 26 August-23 September 2022.

CGS is grateful to Mark Holford and Alan J Poole, who have sponsored this exhibition.

For more information and to download the application form click here.

Image credit: Sai Kiran Anagani on Unsplash

In memory of Anthony Stern (1944-2022)

Another pillar of the glassmaking community has passed away this month: Anthony Stern.

Stern became known for his avant-garde films during his early life, but turned to glass work thanks to his fascination with colour and light. He completed an MA in Glass at the Royal College of Art and was drawn to the immediacy of the material.

Stern encapsulated his thinking on his website with this quote: “I have made glass my first language. I can express an endless variety of ideas and thoughts from the functional and prosaic to lyrical, healing and mystical.

“Set against this, I am fascinated by the rituals of repetition. The physical focus achieved by glass blowing in a limited production team is my own personal yoga.”

His work is in the collections of the rich and famous, including the Queen, Sir Elton John and the Saudi Royal Family.

Image: A view of Anthony Stern’s glass studio.

Scottish glass artist Kate Henderson exhibits in Edinburgh

Scottish painter and glass maker Kate Henderson is presenting her first solo exhibition at Doubtfire Gallery in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh, Scotland, from 16 February until 18 March 2022.

While Kate is known for her vibrant colourful paintings and stained glass, this show, entitled ‘On Reflection’, presents a quieter, more reflective series of works.

Kate says, “My work has developed from my experience during the pandemic, being at home with my family. I was fortunate that I had a good experience and no hardship or illness. It gave me time to develop and reflect on my drawing and mixed media work, which I based on the trees around my home and watching them move into the different seasons. My glass work is augmented by some bright colour Edinburgh drawings, based on the architecture of the city.”

Kate’s art incorporates traditional and contemporary techniques in glass. It includes painted, layered, acid etched and waterjet cutting methods.

This Ice Bubble bowl is one of a selection featuring in the exhibition. Photo: Kate Henderson.

“I’m interested in creating pieces that explore the fragility of glass, working into the surface, as well as the edges, to expose the vulnerability of the material,” she explains. “Over the years I have developed a painterly approach to both my painting and glass work. I feel that the relationship between my glass and painting continues to strengthen and develop, influencing the mark making in each discipline.”

Kate trained in stained glass at Edinburgh College of Art in the early 1990s and has since built up a varied portfolio of commissioned stained glass for public and private buildings across Scotland and Europe. She is an elected associate member of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and was chair of the Scottish Glass Society from 2013-16.

Doubtfire Gallery is at 28 North West Circus Place, Edinburgh EH3 6TZ. The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday 12 noon to 4pm, or by appointment. More information via: www.doubtfiregallery.com

Main image: Tree studies by Kate Henderson featuring stained glass with traditional glass painting and engraving: ‘Watching’ (left) and ‘Waiting’.  Photo: Gordon Bell.

Amanda Moriarty Memorial Prize winner extends his glass practice

Calum Dawes was awarded the 2021 Amanda Moriarty Memorial Prize, provided each year by the Contemporary Glass Society. This time, the prize was made possible by the generous donation of time and assistance of glassmakers James Devereux and Katie Huskie. They provided two sessions of two days at their Devereux & Huskie Glassworks. Here, Calum describes his experience and what he gained from the opportunity.

I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity, which allowed me to further develop a body of work I started in lockdown, and to explore otherwise unattainable scale and complexity.

At the initial session with James and Katie, in early November 2021, we spoke about form and scale.

Then we made a series of vessels, some of which were much larger than I had previously attempted. We also experimented with colour overlays, as well as form.

Two of the bowl forms. The larger one is called ‘Capsize’ and the smaller one is ‘Octopus Chilli Soup’.

This was a great experience. I have not worked with makers to produce glass in this way before and, once I adjusted to it, it was really enjoyable.

Next, I took these vessels back to my studio and selected the ones I would like to take further. I spent many hours over a few weeks painting imagery onto the interiors of the bowls with vitreous enamels.

One of the reasons that this was such a valuable experience was knowing I would have James and Katie’s help. This meant I could commit to creating much more detailed imagery, safe in the knowledge that the bowls were much more likely to be successful.

In the end I decided to paint two of the largest vessels and a set of four smaller ones. Inside I painted marine life and somewhat surrealist imagery, which I think worked well with the liquid-like optics of the glass when filled and sculpted.

Detail of ‘Capsize’ vessel, featuring delicate imagery applied in vitreous enamel.

Once the bowls were completed, I very carefully posted them back to Devereux & Huskie. We brought the bowls up in the kilns overnight and the next morning James picked them up, flashed them to fire the enamels fully, then put them back in the kilns. Then they were filled with a mass of glass before smoothing out and sculpting the surface of the ‘liquid’ using the hot torch.

The largest of the bowls were extremely heavy and would have been very difficult to handle without the skills and setup at Devereux & Huskie.

Immediately before putting the pieces away, we added small, sculpted details to the surface of the glass.

It’s always exciting to see the painting fired and then transformed by the mass of solid clear glass. It was wonderful to see it form out of the bench.

I am thrilled with the results and learned a lot about refining the process. I also understand better what works, in terms of scale compared to the level of detail in the imagery, and how the solid glass affects the optics.

The experience has taught me about how working with other artists can realise more ambitious projects, and helped me to assess what I think is effective about this work.

Again, I am extremely grateful to be given this opportunity and I’m very excited to continue with this body of work.

Find out more about Calum Dawes and his glass here.

Main image: Calum Dawes (right) discussing the creation of one of his bowls with James Devereux as Katie Huskie looks on.

In memory of Erwin Eisch (18 April 1927 – 25 January 2022)

Here Helmut Ricke shares his recollections of Erwin Eisch, a pioneer of the studio glass movement and founder of Bild-Werk Frauenau in Germany.

It didn’t hit the glass world unexpectedly, but still it came as a shock, as a turning point and at the same time as a conclusion. Erwin Eisch, the last representative of the founding generation of the International Studio Glass Movement, died on 25 January in Zwiesel, near Frauenau, Germany, at the age of 94.

Thus ended the life of an artist whose importance for free working with glass, in Germany and far beyond, can hardly be overestimated. His historic role as inspiration for Harvey Littleton on his crucial European trip in 1962 is undisputed. His work built the bridge from Europe to the USA for modern glass.

The stages of his long artistic life are well known: 1946 to 1949 an apprenticeship as a glass engraver in his father’s workshop, 1949 to 1952 and 1956 to 1959 studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he was also a member of the artists‘ group SPUR; in 1960 shaking up the Munich art scene with the group RADAMA, and their spectacular exhibition for the fictional artist Bolus Krim. His return to Frauenau and work in the family business there, and soon at his own furnace.

From 1960/61 he undertook intensive “provocation of form” through freely designed non-functional vessel objects; 1962 saw his first solo exhibition in Stuttgart and the beginning of the friendship with Littleton and, from 1964, numerous trips to conferences and courses in the United States, Europe and Japan.

In Frauenau, with Eisch’s participation, the glass museum got off the ground. Bild-Werk Frauenau was founded as an International Summer Academy. Symposia were organised and the idea of a Bavarian Forest National Park and other projects in the region were promoted.

The focus of Erwin Eisch’s art was, for him, the human in the broadest sense. This applied above all to his painting, which was always a priority, but also to his glass works, with which he always endeavoured to achieve the spontaneous, emotional effects of his painting. When working with glass, the hot material formed directly at the furnace became his very own medium. The behaviour of the flowing, molten glass mass in the fire, which became the starting point for the Studio Glass Movement, remained his preferred means of expression throughout his life, and he never renounced its spontaneous effect.

Erwin Eisch with his good friend Sam Herman at Frauenau in 1967. Photo: Gretel Eisch.

He often used moulds prepared by his wife, the sculptor Gretel Eisch, for his objects. These pieces were then shaped through free forming at the furnace and subsequent painting, gilding and engraving. Short titles, quotes or half-sentences often became the carrier of meaning. The occasional poetic cut of these words was always part of the overall effect and encouraged the viewer to engage with the work.

Every inch a man of conviction, Eisch fought for his views throughout his life. Formative experiences in the Nazi era, in the war and in the immediate post-war period formed an important background for his life and his creative work, but did not prevent him from often giving his work a humorous edge.

Conversations with him were always lively and eye-opening. If you met him in exhibitions or jury meetings, there was always engaged discussion. But for him it was not about being right, or about self-aggrandisement or one’s infallibility, but about a firm attitude that had to be defended.

Erwin Eisch will be missed not only because of his art, but also as an unmistakable voice in the discourse of international glass art.

By Helmut Ricke

Main image: Erwin Eisch at his solo exhibition at the UK’s National Glass Centre in 2013, with his ‘Narcissus’ installation in the foreground. This was a version of his important 1971 piece and went to the V&A museum in London.

Note: Bild-Werk Frauenau has published an online ‘book of condolences’ featuring many pictures. View it here.

Alison Lowry’s ‘The Bystander Effect’ exhibition in Dundalk

Glass artist Alison Lowry’s solo exhibition, ‘The Bystander Effect’, confronts the treatment of pregnant women and unmarried mothers in Ireland over the past 300 years.

Having been shown at Golden Thread Belfast in 2021, this thought-provoking installation has moved to An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk, Ireland, where it is on show now until 26 March 2022.

As Lowry explains, “The academic Dr James Smith coined the term ‘Architecture of containment’ to describe the systems and physical infrastructure that were utilised to incarcerate women and children in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in Ireland. These institutions included: Industrial schools, Children’s ‘homes’, Mother and Baby Institutions and Magdalene Laundries.

“Women and children were ‘hidden in plain sight’ in these religious and state-run institutions, ostracised and ‘othered’ by society. The ‘shame’ that the unmarried mother brought to her family and the (complicit) wider community meant that after delivering her baby in secret, the mother was frequently coerced into signing her baby away to be adopted or placed into a children’s home.”

Attempting to exhume Ireland’s most recent past, and its subsequent intergenerational trauma, Lowry’s work draws on the recently published research reports, ‘Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland’, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry and the McAleese Report.

The exhibition employs windows salvaged from a derelict Industrial school as a construct and metaphor, and as a physical memorial to seeing/not seeing what was happening.

The piece ‘#onemillionbabyshoes’ calls for the graves of the hundreds of thousands of babies and children who died in these homes all over Ireland to be marked appropriately.

The trauma – still suffered by birth mothers – is explored through performance, video and sound in the work ‘Lost to Me’.

They all had names’ was documented outside the gates of Milltown Cemetery in Belfast where it is estimated that 35,000 babies lie in the Bog Meadows in unmarked mass graves.

Apology now’ demands that the recommendations laid out in the Hart report are finally acknowledged by the State. ‘Stained’ glass is created using testimony from the Hart report and an adult survivor’s drawings of his time spent in Nazareth Lodge Boys Home in Belfast.

Finally, ‘Dirty Laundry’ examines institutional legacy using aerial performance, sound and a costume created from napkins recovered from one of Ireland’s last standing Magdalene Laundries.

The An Táin Arts Centre is at Crowe Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth, A91 W20C Ireland. The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Website: https://www.antain.ie

Master of murrine

Glass artist David Patchen uses cane and murrine to create his distinctive patterned glass work. CGS Glass Network digital’s editor, Linda Banks, finds out more about him and his distinctive artwork.

What led you to start working with glass?

I was always curious about glassblowing and how glass was manipulated while molten. In my mid-30s I was working in technology in Silicon Valley. I attended a demonstration at a non-profit glass centre in San Francisco at the end of 2000 and was captivated. I signed up for a beginning class that day. I loved blowing glass so much that, over the next 10 years, I evolved it into my profession, going full-time with glass in 2012.

Midnight Quillon (31″ x 16″ x 6″). Photo: Simon Bruntnell.

What glass techniques have you used in your career and why do you have a preference for multi-layered cane and murrine?

I’ve tried just about all hot glass techniques. Some are great for abstract imaging, representational work or uniform colour.  But I was most attracted to the precision, detail and intentionality of design that murrine and cane offer.

David Patchen squeezing a hot plate of murrine patterns. Photo: Corning Museum of Glass.

What is your creative approach? Do you draw your designs out or dive straight in with the materials?

It all starts as patterns for me. Early on, I would sketch pattern ideas; both to consider colour and design, and to record ideas I liked for future use. But I haven’t done this in ages.

Now, the morning that I make murrine, I already have a vision of what to make, or a colour combination I want to explore.

Another approach is thinking about something I’ve done in the past but riffing on it by changing colours or patterns. I create in 10-or-so ‘series’ or forms, and sometimes I will make murrine patterns with these forms in mind. Other times, I figure out what form I want to create after the murrine are made and cut and I’m arranging them into a mosaic for blowing. I keep my forms clean and simple because they are really just three-dimensional canvases for the composition. I don’t want the form to distract from, or fight with, the murrine.

Aqua/Spring Ellipse (18″ x 15″ x 4″). Photo: David Patchen.

What is your favourite tool or piece of equipment and why?

I love tools, so this is hard for me to answer. I love jacks, because they are truly handmade, and I appreciate the care and skill that goes into making them. When well done, they glide smoothly across hot glass, shaping creases, curves or straight sides. I have many, from master toolmakers in Italy, the UK and Japan.

I also love the newspaper pad. It’s virtually free and the simplest, yet most flexible, tool to shape hot glass. Eight pages of newspaper are folded to a desired thickness, soaked in water and the excess is squeezed out. This flexible pad is held in your bare hand against a turning molten glass bubble, allowing the glassblower to shape it as it inflates. The hot glass rides on a layer of steam generated by the paper. A newspaper pad brings you the closest to actually being able to touch the glass.

Dewdrops (36″ x 47″ x 12″). Photo: David Patchen.

What message(s) do you want to covey to your audience through your intricate work?

It varies somewhat by piece and series, so this is difficult to answer generally, but some themes are:
– Colour relationships and the unexpected
– Movement and the sense of freezing it in time
– A sense of wonder through exploration into unknown realms
– Architectural structures on a micro level and how they relate
– A sense of mystery, both hidden and revealed (specifically in the ‘Bloom’ series).

Steel Blue Bloom (21″ x 17″ x 12″). Photo: David Patchen.

Do you have a favourite piece you have made? Why is it your favourite?

This is always a tricky question. Each work is a unique creation and feels a bit like offspring.  Because my work is intentional in design, I always have a good sense of what it will look like completed, but occasionally one is even better than I anticipated. That might be my favourite for a time, until it’s off to a gallery or collector and I make another that surprises me with how it was better than I imagined. And the cycle repeats.

Cerulean/Lime Foglio (19″ x 12″ x 3.5″). Photo: David Patchen.
Cerulean/Lime Foglio detail. Photo: David Patchen.

You are actively involved in the glass arts community. Why is this important to you?

As an extrovert, I both enjoy the pure social aspect of it and the friendships that are made. I also love learning and helping others when I can. The sharing of knowledge in such a small, and poorly documented, field but is so important for everyone’s growth and enjoyment.

You have been working with the British glass artist James Devereaux on some collaborative sculptures. How did this come about and how have you found the experience?

As the glass world is quite small, James and I met initially through social media. Then we met in person at a conference in Murano and hit it off. In 2019, James mentioned he was going to be teaching at Pilchuck Glass School and proposed heading to San Francisco afterwards to do some collaborative work combining my patterns with his forms. It sounded creatively interesting and good fun, so that’s how it began.

When James was scheduled to be in town, Public Glass [San Francisco’s non-profit centre for glass, art and education] was holding a fundraising party and invited James to be the demonstrating artist. So we made our first collaborative Clovis sculpture on a Thursday and our second one during his demo in front of a few hundred people.

Since then, we’ve continued our collaborations during covid through email, text messages and me shipping pattern blanks from San Francisco to him in the UK. To date we’ve made 10 collaborative works, with another seven planned.  We’re thinking about shows in 2022.

Aqua/Hyacinth Ellipse (17″ x 14″ x 3.5″). Photo: David Patchen.

Where do you show and sell your work?

My work is consistently represented by a dozen galleries across the US and Canada.  It’s been shown at shows and galleries in Europe occasionally, too.

Do you have a career highlight?

It is so hard to pick just one. It was fun spending a weekend trading emails with Elton John, while he selected a grouping. Another was installing sculptures on a ship while cruising around the North Sea. Demonstrating in front of 3,000 people at the Corning Museum of Glass was exhilarating. Spending a month in Japan blowing glass and exploring the culture was amazing.  I look forward to more travel post-covid.

Who or what inspires you?

Rarely anything inspires me directly. But occasionally I’m inspired by colours in textiles or nature, or structures in science or architecture.

Has the coronavirus impacted your practice?

Covid shut down my work for 3.5 months at the beginning of the pandemic, as the studio was closed. This was the longest interruption I’ve had in over 21 years of blowing glass and getting back up to speed was uncomfortable. It also cancelled two solo shows, at least one demonstration, lots of travel and a couple of group shows.

In exchange, I did enjoy spending a lot of time with my family, including my now 9- and 7-year-olds.

In contrast, 2021 was quite a good year. I worked consistently, found a fantastic new assistant and demand for my work has been strong. I think this is probably due to collectors’ desire to add beautiful objects to the homes they have been spending so much time in through this pandemic.

I feel fortunate to have found something I’m so passionate about, and I’m very appreciative when others enjoy my creations.

About the artist

David Patchen is internationally known for his colourful and intricately patterned blown and hot-sculpted glass. His mastery of the murrine and cane techniques and use of vibrant colours results in large work that is detailed, precise and exciting. His work is frequently exhibited in shows and is in many private collections.

His book David Patchen: Glass is in the permanent collection of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, the Glass Study Centre Library in Venice, Italy, and the Rakow Library at the Corning Museum of Glass.

He is actively involved in the glass arts community as Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors at Public Glass, former member of the Pilchuck Leadership Council and Board of Directors, Glass Alliance of Northern California. He has a private studio at Public Glass where he creates his work.

More information at: www.davidpatchen.com and @davidspatchen on Instagram.

Main feature image: David Patchen completing a Foglio. Photo: Drej Larson.

International Year of Glass 2022 launches with opening ceremony

The United Nations-designated International Year of Glass (IYOG) launched today (10 February 2022) with the official opening ceremony taking place over two days in Geneva, Switzerland.

Log in via this link to watch the live broadcast (the recordings will be available after 11 February if you miss the live versions – simply search ‘International Year of Glass’ in the search box on the UN Media website to find the speaker presentations).

The opening event takes place at the Palace of Nations in Geneva and features 30 world-class speakers. Talks highlight the latest thinking on how glass can aid the development of more just and sustainable societies alongside the most recent scientific and technical breakthroughs.

Opening the event on 10 February was Alicia Durán, chair of the IYOG 2022, with the General Secretary of the United Nations António Guterres, the Spanish Ambassador at UN Spanish Mission in NY, Agustín Santos Maraver, the Permanent Representative of Turkey at UN, Geneva, H.E. Sadık Arslan, the Minister Plenipotentiary/Deputy Permanent Representative of Egypt, Ahmed Salama, along with the Science and Technology Counsellor, Permanent Mission of China in Geneva, Shen Yanjie.

For the full programme of speakers and topics, follow this link.