Italian contemporary ceramic art
Recently, the "White - Italian Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition" was launched at the Tao Xichuan Art Museum in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, which will last until March 17, 2022, and is curated by the famous curator, Matteo Zauli, director of the Carlo Zauli Museum, showing the understanding and understanding of Italian artists on ceramic materials and modern and contemporary concepts, and presenting Italy's contemporary art expression based on its own cultural memory. The following is a live report brought by "Phoenix Art".
Porcelain, which is commonplace today, has historically been a powerful medium connecting the Chinese and Western worlds. Ceramics have always occupied a very important place in the entire history of mankind, from the royal palace nobles to the common people, from works of art to everyday utensils, from building materials to medical appliances, ceramics have a rich diversity. In the turbulent changes that took place in the art world in the second half of the 20th century, ceramic art overcame the limitations of its own initial conditions and moved towards interdisciplinary fields such as conceptual installation, mixed media, and multimedia through integration with other artistic fields.
Exterior view of the venue of Taoxichuan Art Museum in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi
On December 18, 2021, the "White - Italian Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition" was launched at the Taoxichuan Art Museum in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. The exhibition is organized by Jingdezhen Municipal People's Government, Jingdezhen Ceramic University, Faenza Municipal Government, China Foreign Culture Group Co., Ltd., International Ceramics Society (IAC), China Foreign Art Exhibition Co., Ltd., Jingdezhen Taoxichuan Art Museum, Jingdezhen Ceramic University International Cooperation and Exchange Office, Ceramics Academy of Fine Arts, Carlo Zaulli Museum, China Arts International Co., Ltd. (Italy), Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Italian Embassy in China, The Italian Ceramic Cities Federation (A.I.C.C), supported by the European Ceramic Route. The exhibition is a special exhibition unit of "The Spirit of Porcelain - 2021 Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennale" and will last until March 17, 2022, due to the impact of the epidemic, the opening ceremony of the exhibition was extended to the afternoon of March 2, 2022 at the Taoxichuan Art Museum in Jingdezhen.
"White - Italian Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition" exhibition site, TaoXichuan Art Museum, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi
Collected by the Italian Municipality of Faenza, the Federation of Italian Ceramic Cities (A.I.C.C.) and the Caro Zaulli Museum, the exhibition includes sculptures, installations, videos and other art disciplines, a total of 32 artists and 46 sets of works, aiming to promote the integration of culture and tourism between China and Italy on the occasion of the Chinese and Italian Cultural and Tourism Year, and explore the original ideas of Italian artists and the practice of ceramic art. It tries to inject vivid ideas into the mature ceramic industry standards and traditions of Jingdezhen through the exhibition.
Curator Matteo Zauli said that the exhibition is elaborated on two narrative levels. On the first level, it is ceramic sculptors and ceramic designers who embody superb technology and distinctive originality in their respective works; as well as some artists who have carried out in-depth artistic cooperation with skilled ceramic craftsmen to realize their artistic concepts and ideas through the medium of ceramics. The second layer will revolve around a series of specific works, triggering people's thinking about human beings, civilizations, cultural changes, and social changes. These works celebrate the immutable power of art, after all, throughout the ages, human beings have always used art to leave their own traces in the long river of history.
Collide with the beauty of East and West
Italy is the cradle of European nations and cultures and the birthplace of the European Renaissance at the end of the 13th century. Porcelain has been one of the most remarkable achievements in many fields of Italian art in history.
Different from the classical elegance of "the nine autumn winds dew more kilns opened, won the green color of a thousand peaks", from the 17th century to the 18th century, under the influence of the East Wind and the West, the Italian ceramic art and craftsmanship often imitated Chinese Ming Dynasty porcelain, forming a new fashion with oriental colors, and the products showed a strong oriental taste. Today, artists try to break through the limitations of small works and create more bold and complex sculptures and installations, which are more in line with the context of contemporary art.
In Onagi and Prestinali's "Finding Yourself", two different cultural backgrounds of China and the West are blended, and the shape of the work is inspired by the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, composed of two ceramic utensils wrapped in pillows, and the fragile ceramics seem to be about to be thrown into the air, feeling the taste of suspension.
The hand-painted clay vase "Blue Is Real" has a hint of banter, alluding to the ubiquity of blue in traditional ceramics around the world. This blue color comes from the traditional ceramics of Jingdezhen, China, and has been imitated and pursued all over the world for centuries. With a sober awareness, the artist crosses the boundary between ceramics and modern art, dissolves the barrier between decorative art and conceptual art, and perfectly integrates everyday objects with works of art.
The True Blue, Ruche Razi
The Wall, Fabrizio
Cliffs of Life, Marta Palmieri
Paulo Polognato is an internationally renowned master of contemporary ceramic art. His ingenious ceramic works follow the traditional craftsmanship of thousands of years, and at the same time have a contemporary perspective and atmosphere. He created what can be seen as sculptures for this exhibition, a work that bears witness to the passage of time and the decline of the local economy after the wave of mass production. The historical changes of his hometown are transformed into sculptures between his alchemist-like fingers, which is also the theme of his flawless works.
All Back, Paul
Mimo Palladino is one of the most important artists in Italy. Born in 1948 in Paduri, In the province of Benevento, Palladino is a interdisciplinary artist who combines painting and sculpture and is one of the exponential figures of avant-garde art. Palladino draws elements and artistic inspiration from many different cultural fields. In the process of studying archaeological artifacts and creating ancient totem sculptures, he experimented with different materials and techniques. After a series of attempts from collage to photography, the artist turned his attention to painting and made a name for himself in the ultra-avant-garde art scene, with Palladino attending the Venice Biennale since 1980 and Documenta Kassel since 1987, as well as several other Italian and international exhibitions. Originally inspired by abstract concepts, Palladino incorporated colour and pictorial elements of Egyptian, Etruscan and early Christian art.
In Palladino's The Witness, fragments of figures, heads, and hands form an artistic language that blends space and time, the cultures of the past, myths, and images. Palladino chose the classic bust sculpture for the Jingdezhen Biennale. He added the typical ceramic element of the coffee cup to it, forming a close connection with his birthplace – coffee is a typical cultural element of the Campania region.
The Witness, Mino Palladino
Between the Two, Julia Bonola
"Longing", Alberto Garutti
What We Entrust to the Wind Series, Sarah Dario
"Goddess of Victory", FOS ceramics
From the historical dimension of the development of porcelain, Italian contemporary ceramics not only carry the changes of the development and integration of the East and the West, but also allow tradition to appear in the modern context, and it is also the balance of contemporary art in human culture and material. In the collision and fusion of Jingdezhen and Faenza, this exhibition further enriches the past cultural and artistic exchange activities, and also provides a more in-depth outlook for all-round exchanges such as culture and art in the future.
Essence, Georgia Marténi
Video played in the exhibition site of "Bai - Italian Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition", Tao Xichuan Art Museum, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi
Look for the shadow of light
On the afternoon of December 25, 2021, on the occasion of the "White - Italian Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition", the Tao Xichuan Art Museum offered a free course to teenagers aged 6 to 12 under the title of "Virtual Museum #4" by participating artist Antolena Chimati, leading children into the world of ceramics and light and shadow, and playing the symphony of porcelain and light.
"White - Italian Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition" exhibition site of the children's course, Jiangxi Jingdezhen Tao Xichuan Art Museum
The course mainly focuses on the relationship between light and shadow in art works, helps young people understand the attributes and basic knowledge of light and shadow through shadow games, understands the artist's creative concept, and guides children to create light and shadow art with the theme of vase elements.
Artist Antorena Chimati recorded a video for the young participants in the course, in which Antorena Chimati used daily necessities such as teapots and cups as prototypes to create ceramic works with special ceramic materials, showing children the different shapes that changed under the action of light and shadow, and the shadow became part of the artwork, showing different forms of art with different angles.
As in Antorina's virtual museum #4, Antorena Chimati also mentions the artist's own concept of shadow in the video: untouchable and close at hand. One can see this miniature ceramics museum but can never touch it, as if it exists in a different dimension from us.
This exhibition is not only an opportunity for dialogue between contemporary and traditional ceramic art between China and Italy, but also a carrier of social public education activities, taking this opportunity to provide children with an environment for cross-cultural exchange, an opportunity to get close to art, and stimulate children's imagination.
Curator: Matteo Zauli
Matteo Zauli was the son of the famous potter Carlo Zauli. Most of the exhibitions, events, artist residency programs, and festivals he curated are related to the use of ceramics in the language of contemporary art in Italy and abroad. He has written for several catalogues and art magazines, and runs columns in the prestigious German ceramic magazine neue keramik magazine. In addition, he taught cultural management and lectures in the curator's course at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna and founded the Carlo Zauli Museum in 2002.
From an early age he managed and operated his sculpture studio with his father, the sculptor Carlo Zauli. Since 1995, he has been independently organizing and curating cultural projects such as art exhibitions. In 2002 he founded the Carlo Zauli Carlo Zauli Museum and has served as its director ever since.
Matteo continues to focus on the deepening of research in the field of art and its connection and integration with the exhibition space, in an attempt to establish a dialogue between these two elements in this way. Among other things, his themes include "classic" sculptural materials, contemporary concepts, and the rediscovery of underrated artistic explorations. His research theories and experiences have also been used to test and refine them outside the museum's language.
Exhibition information
White – Italian Contemporary Ceramics Art Exhibition
Exhibition time: 2021.12.18-2022.3.17
Venue: Tao Xichuan Art Museum
Curator: Matteo Zauli Executive Curator: Zhang Yinglin, Jin Wenwei, Yin Peng, Zhang Xiuzhong
Exhibition coordinator: Lv Dong, Wang Xiaoli, Zhao Lantao, Shao Changzong, Li Wei, Hua Jing, Wei Wenqing
Exhibition Executive: Guo Yuchuan, Ji Ying, Zhou Xinyi, Xue Xuan, Wang Jingbo, Liu Yi, Monica Semplini, Xu Yayang, Liu Yaxin, Wang Yicai, Jin Yinzhu
参展艺术家:Alberto GaruttiI Alberto Gianfreda I Andrea Salvatori l An nalisa Guerri l Antonella Cimatti l Chiara Camoni I David Casini I Diego Cibelli l ELICA Studio- Carto Pastore, Elisabetta Bovina l Eva Marisaldi Fabrizio Lucchesi l Fiorenza Pancino | Fos Ceramiche I Francesco Ardin I Gabriele "mrCorto" Resmini & Luca "Pi" Pellegrino | Georgia Mattein Palmerini l Giulia Bonoral italo Zuffi l Lorenza Boisi I Luce Raggil Marco Basta, Alessandro Di Pietro. Michele Gabriele, Andrea Romano, Jona than Vivacqua ! Marta Palmieri I Mimmo Patadino I Mirco Denicolò Nero/Alessandro Neretti l Ornaghi & Prestinari l Patrizio Bartoloni I POL Polloniato I Sandra Baruzzi i Sara Dario I Sitvia Celeste Calcagno Simone Blacks
(Phoenix Art Comprehensive Report Editor/Li Ruxue)
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