"Mollified" is an exhibition by artists Cosima Montavoci and Lorenzo Passi located in the heart of Venice. The artists present three series of works, each offering a different glimpse into human behavior: blocks of resin that wrap scratch cards collected from the floor; glass votive offerings depicting body parts; and finally, a scale covered with a glass "skin."

Do we still believe in miracles? Are we afraid of dying? How do we deal with failure? Do we remember our fragility? In the context of Venice Glass Week 2022, artists Cosima Montavoci and Lorenzo Passi offer an ironically anthropological look at human behavior: in order to accept frustrations, hardships and fears they have abandoned faith in rational analysis and the divine by adhering to the liberating power of a bitter laugh.

Accessing the Mollified exhibition will require delving into the central ribs of the San Marco sestiere, forgoing an accommodating vision of Venice and embracing a more authentic version of the city, the one provided by Cosima Montavoci's first series of works. In the framework of a larger study, Trash Project, the artist collected from the streets the garbage left by the inhabitants, highlighting the more intimate reality of some cities such as Bologna and Dhaka. Among the calli of Venice , "scratch" cards were collected and organized inside square sheets of epoxy resin. The choice of material is not accidental: resin, in fact, extends the preservative function of glass even to objects that would not withstand the latter's high temperatures. On display are the frustrations of those who entrust their lives to chance and abandon their hope in the street, angrily tearing the cardboard in which it is enclosed to prevent anyone else from accessing any missed luck.

"Relying" is proper to human beings and is tantamount to delegating to someone or something else the change of one's life, a life we wish to be perfect and eternally prolonged. When this ideal is betrayed by reality we invoke it by turning outward, such as asking God to deliver us from suffering, making our existence sweeter, mollified, in fact. A promise with God is thus established: in exchange for an answered prayer, man will offer an object representing the grace received, a votive offering. The solemnity of this pact was sealed by the collaboration of Montavoci and Passi, who inserted lampworked body parts (glass melted with an open flame) into larger sections of glass in turn placed on metal supports. Faced with the tragedies of everyday life, the artists observe the underlying social dynamics and ironically debunk the tradition that a "deus ex machina" will solve every bodily malaise. Passi and Montavoci objectify the limbs, transcend the transcendent and accept that, after all, we are what we are: body.

Matter and projects: every day we toil to defend one or the other. Matter, inevitably, degrades; projects, frequently, break down. When an object is particularly important we place it under a shrine, having the illusion of protecting it forever. The same goes for a goal: when we achieve something we would like to crystallize this particular condition. The irony of this deception is represented by Lorenzo Passi's work The Conquest of the Useless, a pharmacist's scale recovered from the 2019 Venice flood and covered with a glass "skin." What we see as a concluded and attractive object is actually the result of a long series of failures, represented by the ruined or unfinished glass skins. At the same time, the skin does not completely cover the scale, giving the material a way to continue its deterioration.

Glass is thus irony. What we cherish most, such as the body, beauty and youth, cannot be experienced unless it is inexorably consumed; glass, on the other hand, offers the illusion that it can hold and stop this decay. Highlighting this paradox, without taking oneself too seriously, is the first step in accepting one's finitude and fragility.