Lila Farget: Finding Volumes in Architecture

With a natural interest in sculptures, artist Lila Farget found her way to La Cambre Visual Arts, in the studio of Félix Roulin. Today however, she set up her studio in the Ateliers Zaventem. For Farget, sculptures are material in action and molten glass is Farget’s language. Her work is presented in the group exhibition Threads of Nature at Spazio Nobile Gallery where her work explores and reflects upon interactions between humans and the natural environment. TLmag sat down with her to discuss her curiosity towards nature, her space at Ateliers Zaventem, and practice. 

TLmag: With a background of your studies at La Cambre Visual Arts into sculpture, how did you find your language in molten glass?

Lila Farget (L.F.): My first contact with glass was in 1991 during an internship at the MusVerre workshop in Sars-Poteries. I continued my personal experiments with glass when I entered La Cambre Visual Art’s school. When I graduated, glass became naturally a matter of course. This material gives physical reality to my thoughts to recreate an emotion. Glass allows a triple reading of the work: the exterior form, the interior space, and an intimate dialogue with light.

TLmag: In an interview, you mentioned ‘’Architecture has become her means of expression, her glass sculptures translate an idea, a symbol, a utopia’’, Could you elaborate?

L.F.: My sensitivity to architecture is directly linked to the city of Brussels. During my studies I used to walk around the city a lot, fascinated by the architectural contrasts. I find volumes in architecture that inspire me. These volumes allow me to evoke openings, doors, to create a link between the exterior and the interior, to relate the material to the form and the space created. The house, the arches, the columns, shapes that fit together are part of the foundations of my sculptures.

TLmag: Your work in the show at Spazio Nobile Gallery represents architectural forms in molten glass. The narrative of Threads of Nature goes into the relationship between humans and the planet, how do you think your work reflects on this?

L.F.: For the exhibition at the Spazio Nobile Gallery, my work is declined in a series of architectural forms and houses, most of them very colorful. These architectural forms are composed of a superposition of layers. These layers, which can be likened to rock strata in geology, evoke the successive stages that build a life. In a certain way, I work on memory, on the mental activity that allows the memory of previous experiences to better apprehend the future.

TLmag: You recently set up your studio at Ateliers Zaventem, a place that encourages collaboration and collective projects. And how does it affect your practice and work?

L.F.: I am lucky enough to have recently been able to integrate the Zaventem Ateliers, a former paper mill organized as a designer’s studio, a magical space brilliantly orchestrated by Lionel Jadot. Beautiful energy emanates from there, conducive to enriching collaborations. This is my new laboratory for experiments, research, and exchanges. I feel good here and my projects are making great strides, even if working with glass requires patience…

The exhibition Threads of Nature is on show at Spazio Nobile Gallery until 18.07.2021. 

Images: molten Glass by Lila Farget in the exhibition Threads of Nature at Spazio Nobile Gallery.