Your story. Your project.
Glass Soul offers a personalized experience to clients who are looking for something truly unique.
A custom-made glass urn, a bespoke designer urn, or a commemorative glass piece can be created in collaboration with a selected artist and Czech master glassmakers.
The starting point is the individual and their story.
Together, we seek a design for the piece that reflects the individual’s personality, memories, family, and home.
It can be discreet. It can be striking. It can be a sculpture, a glass urn, a funeral glass vessel, a memorial relic, or an entirely new type of personal object.
Individuality is one of the fundamental principles of Glass Soul.
Who are we?
The Purpose and Significance of the Glass Soul Project
Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?
That is the title of Paul Gauguin’s famous painting, which the artist created in Tahiti in 1897. The title itself raises questions that humanity has been asking since its earliest beginnings.
Throughout history, every civilization has asked itself what awaits us once our daily lives come to an end. Philosophy, religion, rational science, and esotericism have all sought answers. At the very heart of these reflections have always been ideas related to the afterlife.
Certain answers are offered by the rich archaeological material that has been preserved across the ages, dating back to ancient Egypt. Material artifacts have always played a key role in funeral rituals associated with death. This was linked to the belief that certain objects could bring relief to their deceased owners in the afterlife.
Today’s postmodern era no longer engages with these ideas and has pushed them beyond the bounds of its thinking as a burdensome obligation. This is also linked to the literal decline of funerary art
Martina Sikorová’s project aims to address the insensitivity of the world around us as well as the crisis in funeral rituals and ceremonies. Its goal is to pay tribute to the deceased through artistic means, as was customary in the past.
From this perspective, Martina Sikorová has been developing the Glass Soul program since 2022 as the next stage in funeral art within the cremation sector. The starting point was Czech glass and the tradition of its artistic and artisanal mastery, which gave rise to original urns, glass urns, and designer urns.
Twenty-one leading Czech artists from various fields were invited to collaborate on the project, reflecting on the role of funerary objects in today’s society. We are witnessing a story in which unique cast sculptures, combined with metal, minerals, and jewelry-making techniques, have added further layers of meaning. Let us hope that this project will contribute to a renaissance of funerary culture.
Karel Holub, M.A., art historian
How did it all start?
The Story Behind the Creation of Glass Soul
It was 2020, and I had just finished my work at the Good Shepherd Hospice in Čerčany, near Prague. I also visited Varanasi, India—its ghats and the local hospice—and felt very deeply the final farewells and the cycle of life. As someone who loves to travel and explore the world, I have always viewed with humility the altars associated with remembrance, ritual, and the deep connection of souls across cultures.
I had more than ten years of curatorial work behind me, both at a shared gallery space and on the documentary *Quo vadis*, under the curatorial direction of Mária Gálová, which chronicled the work of Czech glass artists and their triumph at the Venice competition.
Then came a major turning point—for the whole world and for me personally.
The result of the past twenty years is a work that is created in warmth, yet is cold, fragile, and at the same time strong. Glass Soul. A work that combines the artist’s creativity with my goal of bringing artists together and reopening the conversation about death in our country. A work that brings beauty and space for intimate connection into our minds.
I presented my vision to a carefully selected group of artists from various fields, and without exception, they embraced it with enthusiasm. For most of them, this was their first experience with glass and the theme of funerals. Collaborating with the artists was a wonderful experience, and I am very grateful to them for their dedication, openness, and energy. They had the opportunity to work in state-of-the-art glass workshops, and the result was our first exhibition. Each piece carries a deep personal story and is ready to embrace another—the story of its future owner.
Extensive interviews, thousands of hours spent in studios and glassworks, and the promise of a first exhibition at one of the most prestigious institutions—the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague—from Director Helena Koenigsmarková. Twenty-one artists and a total of twenty-five works. Four months in 2023.
That was the first Glass Soul exhibition.
The response confirmed that this project has both a place and significance. Glass Soul began to develop further. We continue to create, reach out to new artists, and hold exhibitions. Our Glass Soul mobile tombs—that is, glass caskets, custom urns, artistic urns, and other storage objects—can travel with you or quietly converse with you in your home, carrying an intimate message within them.
Visitors have seen our works not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Vietnam, Spain, and Italy. And we’re continuing on.
Martina Sikorová
creator and producer of the Glass Soul project
