Persona XL – Hand-Blown Glass Vase
by MILA ZILA · Nový Bor, Czech Republic

MILA ZILA is the artistic name of Ľudmila Žilková, a Slovak visual artist based in Nový Bor, Northern Bohemia. Working between sculpture and collectible design, she uses glass to examine transformation, identity and the moment when a familiar object ceases to be defined by its function and develops a presence of its own. Her practice begins with glass in its fluid state. While hot, the material reveals its own logic: it stretches, gathers and responds to gravity, rotation, temperature and time. She does not treat these forces as deviations to be corrected. She works with them as active elements of the form, balancing deliberate decisions with the material’s own behaviour. The finished object therefore retains a visible record of its formation. This approach is central to Persona, her ongoing artistic project. It begins with familiar archetypes—vessels, mirrors and objects associated with everyday use—and transforms them through a gradual shift between controlled form and the moment when the material begins to define its own character. Each work starts from a recognisable structure. As further layers of molten glass are added, this original form becomes disrupted, partially concealed and redefined. Function gradually recedes, leaving only a trace of the object’s former familiarity. What emerges is an autonomous form with its own physical presence. Layering operates both as a method of making and as a way of thinking about identity: something built over time, shaped from within and continuously altered by external forces. Persona extends from sculptural vessels and mirrored wall objects to neon structures and spatial installations. Light and reflection are not used as decorative effects but as additional materials. They change the work according to its surroundings and bring the architecture, the viewer and the passing moment into its image.Since 2020, she has developed her independent artistic practice under the name MILA ZILA. Rooted in a precise knowledge of glassmaking, her work continues to move from the scale of the individual object towards larger relationships between material, light and space.