DANZA DEL MARE, a symbol of the MSC foundation’s efforts to protect the sea

November 4, 2021

The sublime sculpture Danza del Mare was created for the MSC Foundation in partnership with Venini, one of the world’s most esteemed glassmakers in the world which this year celebrates its 100 Anniversary. As a work of art, the creation, symbolises MSC Foundation’s dedication to protecting and promoting the natural environment of which we are a part and upon which we depend: our Blue Planet. The sculpture was designed by Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin for MSC Seashore and is located in the MSC Foundation Centre, rising from deck 5 to deck 8, surrounded by a mirror wall that proliferates the light and colours emanating from it, lit by a spotlight located in its base.

“In the course of these one hundred years of history and passion, VENINI has preserved and interpreted a unique artistic heritage that has its origins in the 13th-century Venetian culture, creating distinctive works that combine the profound knowledge of tradition with the allure of contemporary tastes.

Venini is proud to have contributed through its expertise and craftsmanship to creating this unique sculpture celebrating the sea and its beauties.”

Silvia Damiani – President of VENINI and Vice President of the DAMIANI Group

“Our vision is to restore the critical balance between people and nature within a generation, focusing on the environmental protection of aquatic and marine ecosystems in particular. Venini and the MSC Foundation share a deep love of the sea and mutual commitment to protecting it.”

Daniela Picco – Executive Director of the MSC Foundation

Some curious details about “Danza del Mare”:

• Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin are the designers of this beautiful creation realized by VENINI.

• The VENINI Team has supported the engineering and technical development of this colossal installation which is 12 metres high and hand made in every part.

• Every glass fish and ball is a unique hand-blown creation.

• Spiral design that tapers toward the centre and has a top diameter of approximately 3 metres.

• 10 vertical cables and a spotlight that shines upward.

• Around 190 fish of many colours – red, yellow and amethyst –in three sizes (32, 38 and 42 cm), swimming in a spiral grouped by colour, evoking the effervescent colours of water and the sea.

The design uses the magical, fluid medium of glass to express the fluidity of the seas and everything in them, animal, vegetable and mineral, coral, fish, seaweed and oxygen. The immense depth and expanse of the sea, covering 71% of our world’s surface, is contained in the imagery of the sculpture, in its great height and the density of its contents, as if it were the sea itself in a soaring prism of charged and moving constituents. Partly an image of Earth’s lungs, partly an image of Earth’s nutrition and partly an image of simple beauty, it symbolises the sea’s indispensable role in our and our planet’s wellbeing. We are dependent upon it. It is not dependent upon us.

And yet. In it’s very fragility, the sculpture also expresses the fragility of its subject, the degree to which all ecosystems exist in a delicate balance, which must – for our own as well as their health – be respected, maintained and nurtured. That is the deep underlying message of this work of art, reminding and inspiring all of us to treat water and its teeming life with the greatest respect and honour. Given the beauty and abundance of everything it offers, how can we fail to do so?

MSC Seashore will be the perfect location for the sculpture, bringing its message of care for the sea to thousands of voyagers as the ship sails immersed every day in the wonders of the world’s oceans and seas, their rich and infinitely varied splendour.