Foreword from Gustav Weiss
This exhibition of international ceramics in Varazdin takes place at a time when the environment in which we are living is changing faster than ever before. Originally, pottery was nothing but a technique to give the natural material a shape. Then it became an applied technical art, then gained a decorative function, and the freedom of creation grew immensely. The high-performance of Japanese pottery, however, showed that ceramics doesn’t have to be just an art that is applied on something else, but that concentrating on itself it can achieve much more. The same was proven even more successfully by the ceramics of American artists. And so, European ceramics became subject to various influences. On one hand, these stemmed from Japanese handicraft. This means from the beginning accumulated experience developed from the depth of tradition to high sophistication. On the other hand, influences came from the art academies on the West coast of the USA, meaning from a high level down to widespread, trivial, ceramics that respond to the general popularity of American pop art. The mixture of handicraft and artistic aspiration was not new in Europe. But now it produced wide differences that were aggravated by “contagious” examples, and the situation was no longer perceived as an indigenous development, but as induced from outside. This exhibition reflects the general orientation of European ceramics between these two poles. In this, the Japanese influence is not so much visible in whether someone uses a potter’s wheel or not, but it is rather visible in a type of ceramics whose essence and nature lies in its imperfectness. This is in stark contrast with the common European striving for perfection, which has been further intensified by the influence of high level American ceramics. The pace of civilisation, with its rational dynamics, is conflicting with a culture that is based on an internalised spirituality. Therefore this genre becomes subject to the fate of handicrafts even if it has reached the highest levels of art. Its low circulation might be caused by its low popularity and by the higher demand of technological know-how, as well as technical equipment, but it certainly is also due to macroeconomic and private reasons. Traditional craftsmanship, the relation with nature and the focus on adequate handling of the material are considered less important than creativity, originality and spontaneity. In Western civilisation, the ceramist hardly meets nature in its natural shape, but is pre-shaped by human activity. Nature does enthral him, but he perceives the material that he is dealing with as a product of the world he is living in as it has been shaped by men. Nature has nearly disappeared behind the artificial, and what is specific about pottery, is only the nature of the thing. Thereby, understanding nature loses its significance compared to his personal development as an artist. This is the course of civilisation. And it is a chain reaction that over time gains in intensity and scope. Most people believe that this fosters individualism. But in fact it only means that human beings become more reliant on themselves, but not that they become more individual or more different from each other. Just the opposite is true. By being civilised, people become more homogeneous, a type of “normal behaviour”, is spreading. And they will try to break through the norms by surprising, off-beat reactions. Exhibitions like this one are suited to honour such efforts and to bring them out of their social niche and give them public attention. Stanko Spoljaric CERAMICA MULTIPLEX The Ceramica Multiplex exhibition represents an interesting and rich segment of international Pottery Events. Numerous authors coming from all over the world have gathered at Varaždin for this festival of intriguing synthesis which relates contemporary research in Ceramic Art, in this town which, with its national heritage and historical monuments, unveils its long historical and cultural tradition. More than a hundred pre-selected participants certainly cannot be drawn to a common divisor by means of a determined expression as they create a survey of various poetics, often presented with an exceptional creative freshness. Respecting, primarily the material used in the transformation of chunks of amorphous masses from which fantastic forms, severe and fancy volumes, flat surfaces, geometrical and organic shapes, grow, make recognizable the properties and traits of authors of known style and interests. However there may be seen a significant number of new names from abroad, unknown, at least, to us. The charm of this exhibition lies exactly in this fact that ventures towards affirmation of values and exhilaration of discoveries relating to new modes of sculpturing. Within the entire wideness of the traditional mode of expression, open to creative liberties. In examples of concentration on a single form up to the inclination towards complexity of ceramic fable, which runs from accentuated figurativeness to a mere indication of the subject, reaching transcendental clarity, up to the sign language. It either cultivates tons of material or reaches achromatic relationship, or evolves to fauvistic colour. It may present clearly a sketch of a form, or meander with woven lines. Forms may thicken or present themselves in sheer thin flats, covering solid masses which suggest tactility of forms, quite independent of the idea that imply reduction of the object presented, or showing attitude of argumentative proneness to details. It is reflected both in painter's elaboration and in the pulsating of finished volumes. The analysis of the exhibition provides elements which cause us to sense where an artist comes from. Finally, the followers represent layers of tradition in a given cultural background, more precisely, the tradition of an Art. As much as this trait does exist, still, everyone has his/her own measure of authenticity. It equally stands for those artists of Croatia who are more or less equally involved in the entire value of the exhibition. They keep their dialogue with the world through their pieces of Art which show serious engagement and certainly do not lack vivacity in addition to indispensable technical perfection, exhilaration and changes caused by things unpredictable. There remains a secure fact – in front of us lies an extraordinary international exhibition. Blazenka Soic Stebih A note from the organizer:
The nucleus of this project refers to the exhibition evaluated by international jurors and, by provision of additional events, the purpose of which is to gather the intellectual elite in the world of ceramics and to present ceramics in the interesting manner to acquire attention of wider cultural strata of audience, especially of children. A great interest shown by Pottery crafstment from all continents has proved and justified the idea to organize such exhibition and confirmed the prescribed goals on the Association: to develop and upgrade the level of communication and collaboration among ceramic artists on a global international scene. The term “Post-Modernism” was coined in London in 1976 by the American architect Charles Jencks. In his book, «What is Post-Modernism?» published in 1986, he defines the underlying school of thought to this movement in the arts and introduces the idea of an aesthetic “dichotomous code” – equality between the elite and the popular, the old and the new. In his book «Postmodern Ceramics» the American author Mark Del Vecchio sets out to prove that ceramics has kept abreast with the changing times – and in postmodern times originality for the sake of originality is finally appreciated. “There is no need for uprooting (tradition); it is important to discover that which has flourished in hidden places, which is authentic and has grown in the wild, that which is strangely beautiful and exceptionally irregular. The International Community of Ceramists offers us the opportunity to express ourselves in our own language which mirrors many individualities” says Gustav Weiss in his programmatic article in the magazine Neue Keramik which heralded the exhibition in 2002. The topic of the exhibition CERAMICA MULTIPLEX serves to provoke artists into surveying the differences in the approach to ceramics in the East and in the West. Zen Buddhism was brought to China by an Indian missionary and then spread through Korea and on to Japan where it became a philosophy and integral part of the lifestyle. In Japan, and in other places in the Far East, this defined the meditative approach to ceramics – “You will be able to draw bamboo only once you have become bamboo”. American ceramics is a stark contrast to this meditative approach. It is not burdened by traditional affiliation to craft workshops and so ceramists learnt their trade at art schools where they came into close contact with other branches of art. Clichés and prejudices did not inhibit the new generation, so that ceramics could be freely influenced by modern art. The “Clay Movement” was founded in Los Angeles in 1954 and is a group that has freed itself of influences from Europe and from the Far East. Led by Peter Voulkos, the “Clay Movement” and its abstract expressionism have produced many talented ceramists. “Funk Art”, on the other hand, dates back to the hippy movement. By making fun of garishness, it attempted to shock, but was negatively received in the world and branded “Americanism”. The disappearance of the “flower power” generation, also signified the disappearance of shocking ceramics, and ingenious, often ironic, surrealistic “Super Objects” became the trademark of American ceramics. Paul Soldner, one of P.Voulkos’s pupils introduced the technique of raku to America, by abandoning the authentic Japanese form and by introducing bright-coloured glazes and additional reductions. Curiosity, the willingness to take risks and audacity are the three basic characteristics embodied by American raku, which is why it has become so popular all over the world. European ceramics is to be found somewhere in between these two great sources of influence and its motto is “Observe the world and find your own path”. European ceramics is still fighting a battle, a battle that Japan and America won long ago, that is, the battle for the acceptance of ceramics as an art in its own right. In Europe the path from craft to a separate individuality has been dramatic, especially as this individuality marks a break with tradition and the bond to a particular milieu. By employing the boons of technological innovations which developed in Europe ( Seger, Boetger, Wedgwood), but which are also beneficial to ceramics worldwide, individuality has come to be considered a priority in European ceramics, and is more important even than the concepts of a relaxed freedom and a meditative approach founded on religious tradition. Goethe noted that although Nature and Art seemed to be fleeing from each other, before there is time to take this in, they find each other again. Why should ceramics in Europe not be the art of ideas which contain the experience of nature and art? (according to the book by G. Weiss, Abenteur Erde und Feuer – Das ist Keramik, Bern-Stuttgart-Wien, 2000).
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