Who we are
Over 30 years in the world of art glass
Vetroricerca is a glassmaking studio.
Our work began in Bolzano in 1996, when the studio was founded by Alessandro Cuccato and a group of young artisans, united by their profound love for this material.
In the early years, our main focus was training.
At the same time, we began measuring our work against the latest in techniques and shape experimentation, while opening an uninterrupted dialogue with the most successful designers involved in the field: always aiming at achieving state-of-the-art results at the highest international levels.
Over the years, Vetroricerca has been increasingly involved in the production of public artwork and pieces commissioned by artists; this branch of our work has become central and a reference point at the national and European level. Our focus on education nonetheless remains fundamental to us, as evidenced by the ongoing collaboration with the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano/Libera Università di Bolzano.
Today, the key figures of Vetroricerca are Alessandro Cuccato and Alessandra Piazza. Connected by a collaboration of more than 30 years, they each divide their deepest vocation between avant-garde and tradition, in pursuit of transparency, ductility and sincerity: the typical qualities of this material, that is different from all the others, which for millennia has accompanied humankind in the construction of its vision of the world: Glass.
Since 2010 our studio serves as the prototyping laboratory for glass of the Free Faculty of Design and Art of Bolzano with which we have coordinated design projects presented in Europe and overseas.
Since its foundation, Vetroricerca has been involved in the production of glass artwork created by artists from Italy and abroad, which are on display in several prestigious contemporary art museums.
Alessandra Piazza was born in Bolzano in 1967.
In 1987 she moved to Bologna and enrolled at the DAMS - Art.
While she studied, she worked at an antique stained glass restoration laboratory and fell in love with glass. She completed her degree in 1993 and wrote a thesis on the experimental restoration of the stained-glass windows of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.
In 1997 she returned to Bolzano and was invited by Alessandro Cuccato to establish, with a group of other artists, Vetroricerca - Experimental Centre for Glassmaking.
In 1999 she designed her first jewellery lines.
Among the various activities in this field, she recalls fondly the exclusive line created in 2005 for the Shop of the Corning Museum of Glass, NY. U.S.A, where she worked with Silvia Levenson that same year – and was hosted as an artist-in-residence.
Over the years she has taught glass-working techniques at Vetroricerca and collaborated with numerous national and international artists in the creation of original works.
Also, she´s developed a passion for designing tableware, working with renowned chefs to create innovative shapes conceived expressly for their signature dishes.
Since 2015 she has dedicated herself to the production of commissioned works and to research and development in the world of sculpture.
She has collaborated with numerous artists; in 2019 the piece she created for artist Otobong Nkanga was selected to be exhibited at the Venice Art Biennale.
She loves exploring the mountains of her region. And she shares this passion with her two sons, Jacopo and Leonardo.
In 2019 she gave life to the Impronte2000 project, with which she created a dialogue between alpine flora and glass.