Kosta Boda Fortress

Kosta Boda Fortress

- designed by Bertil Vallien

In the hands of Bertil Vallien, the message through glass is both visible and hidden. With a love for nature – with his daily walks in the woods and along the water – he has learned a great deal about how the earth tells stories. When he casts stairs in a block of glass, as in Hidden Stairs (and makes them impossible to tread), he creates something that is both real and not real.
How did the stairs end up there ? As if the glass had come up with the word “stairs” ?
Glass artistry and wizardry occasionally go hand in hand.

In this series, Bertil Vallien lines up two of his favorite expressions side by side: blue glass and a gold-painted object. Interpretation of the sculptures is of course up to the individual viewer, but for Bertil, this is first and foremost a playful approach to the ability of glass to continuously change and put its artist to new tests. 

Each form has its own narrative. Here, glass and mankind blend in a unique way to tell an emphatic story. Fortress is part of Bertil Vallien’s anniversary collection, “Bertil Vallien: 60 years with Kosta Boda” (1963–2023), and is produced at Kosta glassworks in Sweden.