IN MEMORIAM SISSI ZIZLSPERGER

IN MEMORIAM SISSI ZIZLSPERGER
07/04/2020

Source: newsletter of Bild-Werk.

Bild-Werk Frauenau mourns the loss of a person whose passion was glass: Sissi Zizlsperger, a long-time board member and leader of the “Galerie am Museum”, died on March 31, 2020 at the age of only 63. She fought cancer with her own optimism, but ultimately she lost her battle. It is particularly sad that Sissi’s death came at a time of social isolation due to the Corona crisis. Contacts with other people were always vital to her. With her passing, the glass scene in the Bavarian Forest and the international scene have lost their communicative heart.

Sissi Zizlsperger was a gifted networker. She knew how to bring people together, – young, unknown artists as well as established artists from the region and around the world. Her enthusiasm for glass and the people who made it in a variety of ways was inspiring. She created opportunities for exhibitions and encounters and, with her warmth and hospitality, made the guests feel welcome.

Sissi Zizlsperger came to Bild-Werk in 2005 as an intern. From the same year she was appointed to the “Eisch-Atelier” and the artist-in-residence program, which brought international artists to Frauenau to work creatively with the glassmakers from the Eisch glassworks. Before that she had worked in the Glass Museum in Passau, where the entrepreneur Georg Höltl had installed the world’s largest collection of Bohemian glass. During this time, Sissi developed a love for this fascinating material. Then, in Frauenau, she entered a particularly creative glass environment, where the new Frauenau Glass Museum had just opened. In Tom’s Hall, on the site of the former glass king Isidor Gistl, Bild-Werk Frauenau had established itself from 1987 as a non-profit educational institution and cultural initiative that was developed from impulses by Erwin Eisch, and from the connections of the regional glass scene to the International Studio Glass Movement. Participants from all over the world came to the courses at the Summer Academies, and Sissi Zizlsperger was open to everyone. She engaged in the Board of Directors of Bild-Werk Frauenau (from 2008 to 2011 as the chairwoman) and brought in her ideas and put many suggestions into practice. The summer academy and the “Gallery at the Museum” complemented each other perfectly. The traveling exhibition “50 Artists – 50 Vases”, which she co-organized, is still seen as one of the most creative actions to this day.

Sissi will be remembered by all of us within Bild-Werk with her zest for action, her community spirit and her always interested and excited manner. We would love to be there when the many friends she has in Frauenau and far beyond hold her in memory with a big party in better times to come: Sissi Zizlsperger, the fighter with a big heart for people and for glass.