For your current exhibition embrace at Hamburger Bahnhof, you’ve created monumental sculptural elements that include glass components made at Studio Lhotsky. Could you describe what exactly was produced in the studio? What kind of glass objects did you create?

We created long, slender glass forms, measuring between 60 and 100 cm. In different contexts they have been called “claws” or “ribs,” yet they ultimately resist a fixed definition — they could also be seen simply as abstract fragments, each with a single sharp edge. These glass elements were embedded into the sandstone sculptures so that they merge organically with the forms, their pointed ends always projecting outward, like extensions breaking through the surface.

What techniques or technologies were used to produce these glass pieces? Were there any unique challenges or innovations involved?

The pieces were created through glass casting and finished with a matte, velvety surface, allowing them to reflect light in a subtle, almost diffused way. Although their forms appear thin and elongated, they carry a surprising weight — a challenge when integrating them into sandstone structures that are not, by proportion, equally dense or heavy. One solution proposed at Studio Lhotský was to reduce their volume by slicing the forms lengthwise, removing nearly a third of their mass from the back while preserving their fragile elegance on the surface.

Another concern was ensuring the glass would truly capture light, given their position within the sandstone and the relatively small surface exposed. To address this, the studio applied a reflective film to the reverse side of the glass, enabling the elements to glow more intensely, as if illuminated from within.

Approximately how many glass elements were created for the exhibition, and how are they integrated into the overall installation?

In total, we created nine glass elements, which were embedded into three monumental sculptures, each measuring roughly 500 × 250 cm. Two of the glass forms are in greyish tones, four in pale yellow, and three in deep red, each carefully matched to its corresponding sculpture.

Their role, as mentioned earlier, is to introduce a luminous counterpoint within the mass of sandstone. The surfaces of the sculptures are conceived to evoke natural landscapes — uneven, layered, and never homogeneous. The glass fragments, together with the embroidered elements also embedded into the stone, enrich these surfaces with another material presence, one that catches the light and unsettles the uniformity, much as nature itself does.

What role does glass play conceptually or materially within this project?

Materially, glass is a counterbalance to the sandstone — fragile where the stone is solid, translucent where the stone is opaque, sharp where the stone is heavy and blunt. Conceptually, it introduces light as a material presence. It does not simply reflect the environment but absorbs and refracts it.

The glass elements act almost like geological intrusions or veins of crystal within rock, but at the same time their shapes evoke something more animal, possibly alien — an intervention that unsettles the surface. They make the sculptures less static, more porous, as if the work itself were breathing light.

Was this your first time working with glass? If not, could you tell us a bit about your previous experience? If yes, how did the material influence your process or ideas?

I have collaborated with Studio Lhotský on several projects prior to this exhibition, and I have a deep respect for their work, which comes from a long tradition of glassmaking inspired by masters such as Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, whom I personally admire.

Cast glass is an extraordinarily versatile medium, offering artists tremendous freedom in the creative process — its possibilities are nearly endless, allowing one to trust that a vision can be fully realized. 

Do you see yourself working more with glass in future projects? Are there any directions or themes you’d like to explore further with this medium?

My next exhibition at the New Museum in New York will also incorporate glass elements, created alongside those for Hamburger Bahnhof. In this case, the glass pieces are again embedded within a sandstone sculpture, but the entire installation will be suspended in a room approximately 13 meters high, with the pointed glass “claws” projecting downward toward the floor.

As for future projects, I don’t yet know exactly what will come next, but I see glass as one of my essential materials, capable of existing not only as an architectural element but also as an ornament, a captor and diffuser of light, and a medium that carries a long-standing human tradition of craft.